D&G Life Awards 2025

We were delighted to welcome the Dumfries and Galloway Life Awards back to The Crichton last week with their 15th annual ceremony, held at Easterbrook Hall.

The D&G Life Awards celebrate the incredible community spirt of the region, as well as the remarkable array of talents, entrepreneurial skills, innovation, enthusiasm, dedication, and passion that exists here. The nominees are selected by the public and are those within local communities that people believe deserve recognition for their amazing achievements, for striving for excellence and flying the flag for the region in the fields of enterprise and education, food and drink, sports, culture, and tourism.

Visual Artist/Maker of the Year

The Crichton is once again proud to sponsor the Visual Artist/Maker of the Year award, and this year’s nominees showcased the fantastic creative talent that exists in Dumfries and Galloway. The finalists were:

Coulson & Tennant

Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant are an award-winning artist partnership who combine documentary and fine art in their visual storytelling. Through photography and filmmaking, they aim to “spark conversations about the past, present and future of our man-made and natural world.”

Based near Thornhill, they undertake commissions for a wide range of organisations as well as working on their own personal projects and have collaborated with community groups and individuals across Dumfries and Galloway. They have spoken at prestigious events and forums, and their work has appeared in major national and international publications. One nomination said, “They have created some amazing exhibitions and films including travel and documentary work and stunning portraits of people and places, from the Antarctic and Svalbard to the east end of Glasgow. Their drone work offers a whole new perspective on far off places and what’s on our doorsteps. They richly deserve this award for their skill, creativity and storytelling.”

Rebecca J Woods

“Potter and pioneer”, Rebecca has brought her style of Mishima pottery to Moffat where she creates functional and decorative ceramics, and offers workshops in her own studio. Specialising in Mishima, a traditional Korean technique of inlaying coloured slip into carved lines and impressions, she uses glazes in soft, muted tones, sometimes experimenting with wood ash and oxides.

Many pieces feature surface decoration through imprinting and fluting, using found objects and she develops motifs from historical pots from Europe, Japan, Korea and early British studio pottery. Exhibiting at fairs, exhibitions, markets and galleries across the UK, Rebecca has taken part in Dumfries and Galloway’s annual Spring Fling Open Studios weekend for the past two years as well as Upland Made visual art and craft fair in Dumfries and Potfest Scotland. Rebecca received a Visual Artist and Craft Maker award (VACMA) for 2024/25 and is a member of Upland CIC and the Scottish Potters Association.

Silvy Weatherall

A self-described ‘rag n’ bone woman’, Silvy’s favourite raw materials are unwanted, discarded items which, according to one nomination, she “transforms into something new, beautiful and profound.” Based near Dumfries, Silvy is a multimedia artist whose work has been exhibited across the globe, including at sol shows in the Philippines and Hong Kong. She has worked with prestigious galleries in London and Edinburgh and staged a major show at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries in 2022.

Her sculpture series, The Last Supper, created using smashed china, has toured cathedrals and churches country-wide. From bones to broken furniture, old tyres to spent gun cartridges, “Silvy can see the beauty, magic and message in everything, and will reveal it in a totally unique manner,” said one nominator. “She is a woman of extraordinary vitality, ingenuity and intelligence. This she pours into her artworks which, like herself, tend to be multi-faceted, bold and unique.”

Huge congratulations to Silvy who took home the award on the night.

It’s always an honour to be involved in the awards that celebrate the best our fantastic region has to offer, as well as the hard work that goes into the event by our team at Easterbrook Hall. Thank you to Dumfries & Galloway Life for a brilliant evening, and to all the events staff who ensured the evening ran smoothly.