Tracey Scott – Master of Fine Art (MA)

Mature student, Tracey Scott from Orkney, is fulfilling a lifelong ambition and graduating with a Masters in Fine Art from Gray’s School of Art.

Tracey began her creative journey at St David’s RC High School, before heading to Orkney College at the University of Highlands and Islands to study a HNC in Fine Art and Design.

From here, Tracey moved to the city of Dundee, studying art and digital design at Dundee University’s Duncan Jordanstone College of Art & Design. This provided the foundation she needed to study at Gray’s School of Art, where she pursued two undergraduate degrees in Photography and Communication Design.

In 2014, she became a mum to daughter Olivia and took a short break before returning to study 2 years later.  Upon graduating from Gray’s first-time round, Tracey went on to build up a creative practice from her home-based studio in Aberdeen continuing to develop her work of Digital and Fine Art before deciding to fulfil her ambition to study a Masters at Gray’s.

Tracey said: “I’d really enjoyed my previous degrees at Gray’s. The art school is small and intimate and offers such a friendly and supportive community. I wanted to return to be immersed in such a positive and creative atmosphere.

“I initially started the MA in Fine Art during the Covid lockdown in 2020, so it was mainly online classes. Gray’s was really great throughout this time and the course tutors organised coursework so that we could still work within our studio. This gave me the creative space to produce work as and when it was needed.

“I pursued my masters while being a mother to my young daughter, so had to juggle motherhood and study. My local school was closed so I had to balance childcare and home schooling alongside my studies. The staff at Gray’s were so supportive and encouraging and I really enjoyed the new challenges this brought.

“I also used the experience of spending time with my daughter in lockdown as the starting point for research. It gave me inspiration for my work, and I produced large scale oil paintings with projections of film and photography depicting themes of motherhood.  These included 3 large scale mixed media works of alternative portraits, all using creative techniques I developed during this time."

Reflecting on her experience at Gray’s, Tracey said: “I feel the Masters at Gray’s has a very open, multimedia approach which has enabled me to learn new artistic techniques within a contemporary context.

“The postgraduate degree has helped me work with many different mediums within my practice, developing new skills along the way,  including learning oil painting, which is a medium I’d never had the chance to fully explore prior to my MA. 

“The seminar programme, delivered by Gray’s and through the Guest at Gray’s lectures with visiting artists, also encouraged me to discover various avenues of research which helped me realise concepts and work towards a final body of work."

Now that Tracey is graduating, she wants to pursue a career in architecture and has plans to combine skills learnt on her post graduate degree with contemporary architectural design. She also wants to keep working as a practicing artist and to further develop her oil painting and digital art creating work to exhibit in the new year.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Gray's and learnt so many skills that I can use in the future career within the creative industry. I loved working alongside and meeting such creative people. I will miss being part of Gray's School of Art.”