If only I knew the way – new paintings by Leah Moodie

Having graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021 with a BA (hons) degree in Painting, Moodie now lives and works in Glasgow. Using painting as a means to navigate her feelings of homesickness for Orkney, she creates melancholic visions of displaced domestic scenes painted onto sheer PVC shower curtains.

The exhibition takes its title from the lyrics of a song by the Grateful Dead called Ripple. “….If I knew the way I would take you home”. Leah explained “I’ve always found this line comforting but with a twinge of sadness. It’s almost like a reassurance that home is there - it exists; but you can’t quite get there just yet. Maybe one day. My work is about this journey; of seeking the comfort of a home that is just out of reach.”

Many of the paintings in the exhibition take their titles from the lyrics from songs the artist listens to in her studio while she works. She continued “Music goes hand in hand with my creative process. I often listen to albums on repeat to get into that almost trance-like state of focus I need to be in to paint.”

Taking inspiration from the paintings of Orcadian artist Sylvia Wishart, Moodie has been thinking about ideas relating to inside and outside, looking in and looking out, and how ‘home’ expands to include landscape, nature and the wider environment. Leah said “The centrepiece of my exhibition is a painting called "Leave the light on" informed by Sylvia Wishart’s painting "Reflections" from the Pier Arts Centre collection.”

Leah has been visiting the Pier Arts Centre for many years and was a member of Piergroup, the Centre’s young people collective when she was a teenager. On exhibiting at the Pier Arts Centre Leah said “I am thrilled to bring my work home to have a solo exhibition at the Pier Arts Centre.”

The Pier Arts Centre summer opening times are Monday to Saturday 10.30am-5pm. Admission is free