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Inspired by renaissance masters, Inês-Hermione studied anatomy as an elective while at Edinburgh College of Art, to better draw and understand what lies beneath the surface she is drawing or painting. Something that would continue throughout her career both within surgery and botany. After working from the cadavers at the medical school, what originally started as a greater understanding of anatomy in the pursuit for realism in portraiture, swiftly took on greater significance. While working within the medical school, an interest in medicine and surgery itself took root. During her final year at Art School, Inês-Hermione shadow surgeons at the JR hospital in Oxford, her research culminating in a studio practice and dissertation centred around the ‘craft’ of surgery, its artistic tendencies and the similarities between painting and surgery. Inês-Hermione found success from her degree show, having work purchased by the Edinburgh Collection and being invited to Exhibit at the ‘Rising Stars’ exhibition in London the following year at the Mall Galleries; where she won the Jackson’s ‘One to Watch’ award following a public vote. She was invited to shadow surgeons across the UK, creating work on commissioned projects and for her own personal practice. In 2017 Inês-Hermione went back to study a Masters in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with Distinction. A degree she decided was necessary after realising the ethical considerations needed when working in surgery and this form of social research. Her year culminated in a thesis discussing the importance of drawing as a method of research in Ethnography, as a form of participation and observation. In 2020 she started a residency with the Surgeon’s Hall Museum in Edinburgh as their project artist. The role being centred around the opening of their new permanent exhibit ‘Body Voyager’, where she worked on a series of paintings exploring the human, patient, robot relationship in robotic surgery. Her paintings are now included within the permanent exhibition there. She is now working on a collaborative project with the Mater Misercordiae hospital in Dublin on their pioneering research in Ai in cancer detection and treatment. Alongside her surgical art practice, Inês-Hermione also works within botany, specifically Bryophytes; the study of mosses, lichens, liverworts and hornworts. A self-proclaimed ‘Champion of Moss’, she likes to focus on the plants that seldom get the spot-light in the botanical art world next to the flora, fruits and vegetables of the world. Despite being inspired by their stunning and varied forms, it is her need to understand ‘what lies beneath the surface’ (their structure and function) that lead to her fascination with these particular plants and algae, and their unique importance for maintaining biodiversity and the creation of life-facilitating eco-systems. From photography and research in the field (literally), and further examination in the studio, Inês-Hermione creates unusual, ambiguous, paintings and drawings that fall under the title ‘Macro-Landscapes’. Exhibited to the public for the first time as part of the Society of Botanical Artists annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries this summer (2022). Where she also went on to win the ‘Making A Mark’ award. Inês-Hermione enjoys a varied career, throwing herself into her collaborative projects. Taking a research based approach, she enjoys the challenges each of these pose. Her self-initiated academic study continues, and recently she has started exploring the ‘entangled world’ we all live in and with the natural world, advocating the benefit for cross-disciplinary study for furthering our understanding of the natural world and our place in it, for a sustainable future.

b. 1994 England
Living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland

 

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