A local couple has played host this summer to an international art student honing her craft.
Last June, 21-year-old Louise Davidge of Shetland Islands discovered she has extended family in South Delta and across Canada when she met cousin Jim Stimson and his wife Janet when the couple visited her family.
Stimson said his maternal grandfather emigrated from the islands in 1905 at the age of 19 with three of his brothers. During their first ever visit to the area, he and Janet spent two weeks connecting with numerous family members, including Davidge and her parents.
Davidge, 21, has spent the past three years studying at Grays School of Art at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. She received the Carnegie Undergraduate Vacation Scholarship, which provides money for one student to study at any studio in the world.
Davidge said she knew right away she wanted to come to Canada, somewhere she had never visited, and started looking for studios specializing in her area of study - printmaking.
She discovered the Malaspina Printmakers Society on Granville Island and decided that was where she wanted to study.
"They have marble stones and lime stones, which are used for lithography printing," she said, adding that was something she was eager to try.
Davidge arrived on Aug. 17 and has been staying in Ladner with the Stimsons while making the trek into Vancouver to work with and learn from the artists at Malaspina Printmakers.
"From my visit I hope to get inspiration and confidence to start my fourth year," she said. "I am very inspired by my surroundings so the chance to visit somewhere I have never been before will be very exciting and influential."
"She is absolutely the most incredible student and person too," said Jocelyn Barrable Segal, one of the artists at Malaspina who has been working with Davidge.
She said lithography is an old (it was developed in the 17th century) and "very, very, very, very" technical art form.
"If we weren't printmakers, we'd be scientists," she said with a laugh.
She said Davidge picked up the technique quickly.
"She's a very talented girl. She's going to go places."
Davidge said she has taken inspiration from her time here in South Delta, adding she never expected to see the expansive farming fields so close to the city.
"I think it's really nice that it's never spread that far," she said.
Davidge is flying back to Scotland on Sept. 21 and will return to Grays School of Art to begin her fourth year.
