Work of Coleraine artist is chosen from over 2,000 pieces submitted for Royal Ulster Academy exhibition

27-year-old Naomi Arbuthnot is a visual artist, printmaker and course facilitator.

Naomi attended secondary school at Dominican College in Portstewart and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Belfast School of Art in 2019, and obtained a ‘Outstanding Student Award’ from the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.

She works in a combination of traditional and contemporary printmaking disciplines, including linocut/woodcut, and silk-screen printing created using hand-drawn stencils. Her work is heavily influenced by pop art.

Linocut and screen print are both time-consuming processes, that require multiple steps and careful attention to detail, but for Naomi, that's exactly what makes it so meditative and calming, and “an absolute joy to teach to other people in printmaking courses”.

Since her graduation in 2019, this will be the fourth year Naomi has been fortunate enough to have had screen prints selected for the annual exhibition. Naomi said she remembers travelling on the train with her art class every year while in secondary school to see the RUA annual exhibition so it feels like a dream come true to the an exhibiting artist.

Founded in 1879, the Royal Ulster Academy is the largest and longest established body of practising visual artists in Northern Ireland. The Royal Ulster Academy show is Northern Ireland's biggest art exhibition with more than 2,000 pieces are submitted. Only 200 will get the chance to have their work displayed alongside celebrated artists at the Ulster Museum.