Featuring:
Basia Mindewicz, Judith Allan, and Ella Edge
We are delighted to announce At The Margins, an upcoming exhibition at St Margaret’s House showcasing the personal art practices of our founder and tutor Basia Mindewicz, alongside students Judith Allan and Ella Edge.
This exhibition is an exploration of those who are often unseen, forgotten, or left out — those who are too often made the object rather than the subject of conversation and decisions. Here, women and animals are invited not only into the frame, but into the shared space of dialogue and attention. At The Margins is an invitation to pause, to witness, and to listen.
Through painting, mixed media, and contemplative practice, the artists explore the quiet strength of beings and stories that exist outside the centre — revealing the beauty, dignity, and vulnerability found in those spaces.
Judith Allan
Judith studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art and later worked in Art Education before beginning her journey into Icon Painting and its history in 2012. Her work ranges from traditional icons to experimental mixed media pieces, often reflecting on emotional balance and the forces that disrupt it. Judith’s practice looks back on the lives lived and lost before us, exploring how icons can become a way of remembering — and reimagining — the stories we choose to preserve.
Ella Edge
Ella is a researcher, beekeeper and artist whose practice weaves together elements of nature, spirituality, and lived experience. An Irish New Zealander now living in Scotland with her American partner and Greek dogs, Ella draws her materials and inspiration from the trail and from ancient spiritual traditions. Her work holds a tactile connection to the land and the creatures who inhabit it, reflecting both reverence and curiosity.
Basia Mindewicz
Originally from Warsaw, Poland, Basia is an icon painter and contemporary artist who trained in the traditional techniques of egg tempera and gold gilding at the College of Iconography in Poland. While her foundation lies in the sacred art of the icon, her current work explores more personal and contemporary languages of reverence — often through portraits of animals. These works celebrate the quiet holiness of the natural world, offering a space where every being, human or animal, can be seen as worthy of love and honour.
“Painting animals is a way of celebrating them,” says Basia. “I believe no one is more deserving of a halo than an animal.”
At The Margins invites you to experience, talk, and explore — to step closer to the edges where empathy, beauty, and understanding begin.