March 13th – March 27th 2026
Opening Night: 13th March 5pm

Please direct all sales enquiries to sixfootgallery@gmail.com

It gives us great pleasure to welcome artist Maeve Dixon back to Six Foot Gallery.

“Like a lot of people during Lockdown I started to delve deeper into my ancestry and explored my family’s journey from the West of Ireland to Glasgow in the 19^th century. This is a common story for many Glaswegians who have Irish ancestry. My ancestors, whose surname was Padden, were from County Mayo, and in looking at records I have discovered that they were tailors who lived in Belmullet.

Read our interview with Maeve over on our blog.

I have spent the last two summers in County Mayo where my family lived, drawing, painting, and photographing, which is my way of exploring an environment. I’m interested in the folk traditions of Mayo. The ‘strawboy’ tradition that I have explored in my work had almost died out there but was recently revived by historians in the area. My ancestors lived on a strip of land that runs down to the sea. I stood on the land where they grew their crops. They used seaweed from the sea to fertilise the land. They survived the worst of the Irish famines and being evicted from their home. Four children without their parents made their voyage in a boat from Belmullet to what they hoped would be a better life in Glasgow. Their first language was Irish Gaelic. When my great grandmother arrived she worked in the bleachfields at Glasgow Green. 

I have created landscapes that are scenes from contemporary life in and around Belmullet where my ancestors lived, followed on by a series of cityscapes of the central and east of Glasgow where they settled when they arrived. This story is a common one to so many people on the west coast of Scotland. My great great grandparents, Maria Padden and John Dickson, married on the 27^th May 1864 in St Andrew’s Cathedral beside the Broomielaw.

Gathering features two monoprinted portraits on tablecloths: the portrait of the woman is inspired by an archive photograph of a woman collecting seaweed in Count Mayo with a woven basket on her back, her face partially covered to protect it from the cold winds; the wedding gatecrashing strawboy would not be recognisable to the guests as his face was covered and he would wear simple white robes – there was mischief and merriment when a strawboy arrived at a wedding. A good tablecloth signals a special event will take place, a special meal or person may be arriving. The one Irish object that we have had passed down the generations is an Irish linen tablecloth. Some of our other Irish ancestors were from just outside Belfast where linen was produced and shipped around the world. I have monoprinted my drawings onto found linen tablecloths rather than using our precious family heirloom. I decided to not wash away the tea stains, hinting at the human presence. They are a form of a family portrait, hence why they are hung on the wall and not draped over a table. Dressmaking pins as would have been used by tailors hold the artworks in place. 

We have no photos of our Irish ancestors from this time in the 19^th century therefore we can only imagine what they looked like from the photos that we have of their sons and daughters. What kind of desperation did they feel that they made the journey across the rough seas to form their new lives in Scotland?”

Gathering runs at Six Foot Gallery from 13th March – 27th March 2026. Connect with Maeve over on Instagram or on her website.