HER work has been shown in galleries and at festivals across the world and now two of the largest pieces ever created by Borders artist Liz Douglas are a new landmark on Peebles High Street.

The pieces, inspired by the town’s intrinsic connection with fish, were commissioned by Peebles Creative Place 2014 and were made for the face of the Eastgate Theatre.

Ideas for the work came from looking at the visual history of the salmon – pictish salmon imagery from a standing stone at Borthwickshiels, a 26,000 year-old image of a salmon from the Dordoigne; the salmon scales from a visit to Tweed Foundation; reading about the journey of the salmon from Greenland to the Tweed and imagining the salmon’s journey.

“This was an opportunity to use contemporary materials and methods to link the salmon, and its history, with modern-day Peebles,” said Liz.

“I decided to base these pieces on the scales of the salmon which I found particularly intriguing both in shape and meaning, as well as their transparent quality. In the panels I have tried to convey something of the mystery and occasional visibility of the salmon on its journey and I hope I have produced something that is visually interesting and enjoyable to the viewer.” The pieces are also a development of Liz’s recent research into laser-cutting as an innovative drawing tool. Beginning with hand-drawing and planning of the compositions, she then translated her hand drawings into computer files so that cast acrylic sheet could be directly laser-cut and etched, a new development in her practice. By cutting and etching the acrylic to different depths, she made it reveal different light and colours intending to create something of the mystery and occasional visibility of the salmon on its precarious journey.

The two art works, called Peel 1 and 2 are drawings in cast acrylic and are named after a reference in the Border Ballads where a peel is a pool.

Liz is a practising artist working in Wasps Artist’s Studios in Selkirk; a professional member of the Society of Scottish Artists, and a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art.