Episode 50 - Himalayan Artist, Highland Crofter with Rob Fairley

Rob Fairley talks to me about his journey as an artist - starting at an early age with a school visit to St Kilda, through Edinburgh College of Art and onwards to Mallaig and then Shona Beag island where he spent 5 years as its sole occupant in his early 20s. There he created what would now be described as land art, for example altering the movement of deer in certain ways to create patterns, or 'tuning' a causeway by moving rocks to change the pitch.

He used climbing mainly as a means of exploration, and undertook several mountaineering expeditions to the Himalaya with Mal Duff - sketching people in busy Kathmandu and creating vivid mountain watercolours.

Rob recounts the origins of Room 13, a child-led art project starting in 1994 at Caol Primary School, Fort William. The Room 13 approach spread internationally and allowed young people a creative freedom not found in mainsteam school art education. The 'outsider art' produced - freed from classroom or teacher influence - often explored adolescent themes neglected at school. Rob was involved with several Room 13 trips to Nepal including a road trip with Room 13's young people from Delhi to Mumbai to establish a school for Mumbai's street children.

I misnamed Robert Macfarlane's book 'Underland' when we are discussing the Chauvet cave paintings and 'thin places'.

Rob's website is at ⁠robfairley.co.uk⁠

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