How to Make the ‘Transmutation of Patterns’ like a Pictish Artist

In this workshop, art historian Cynthia Thickpenny and stone carver David McGovern will teach you how to create your own version of a complex and fascinating type of design from early medieval Scotland: the transmutation of patterns. Transmutation occurred when the artist chose to transmute, or physically transform, different geometric patterns into one another in a completely continuous manner. The Pictish sculptors from the Tarbat and Black Isle peninsulas were masters of transmutation. Workshop attendees will learn how plan their own transmutation through drawing with pencil and paper, similar to how Pictish manuscript illuminators and sculptors might have initially designed their artworks before carving or painting them.

This art-making activity is based on McGovern and Thickpenny’s collaboration as part of Thickpenny’s Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, in which they reassessed and recreated a virtuoso Pictish artwork from Portmahomack: the carved stone wreath with three-dimensional transmutation between five different patterns.

Paper, templates, pencils, and other necessary materials will be provided.

Beginners welcome, suitable for adults.

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