From Issue Thirteen of Hidden Scotland Magazine

Mountains of the Mind

The artist Mandy Maria and her mountains.

Words by Rachel Rowley · Photographs by Mark Reid-Foster

Printed in Issue Thirteen of Hidden Scotland Magazine, Autumn and Winter 2026–27.

Mandy Maria grew up in Aberdeenshire and is currently based in Glasgow where she lives and works from a studio in South Block, WASPS. Although she struggles to introduce herself as an artist, it’s clear that she has always been one. She is self-taught with a background in design. Drawing, a natural affinity for colour and a powerful pull towards Scotland’s hills and natural environment have been constants in her life. Perhaps moving forward, she’ll find a way to confidently and constantly claim her identity as an artist.

For Mandy, words have never been the easiest way to express herself. “My form is not words – I draw,” she says. It is a simple statement, but one that goes some way to explaining her instinctive, colourful work. This began in her early years and was formalised with her studies of product design at Gray’s School of Art which was encouraged by her parents as a more practical route for a creative soul. This led to an early career as a designer and later creating a print shop called Submarine located in the Barras. Under this venture, she sold a collection of contemporary pieces and quickly realised there was demand for what she curated and her own work. She moved from painting and fine line drawings, mainly as a result of Raynaud’s disease and found herself a new way forward with soft pastels, a relationship which is now well-established.

Hands holding a pastel landscape of trees and hills

For those unfamiliar with the medium, soft pastel is pure pigment in dry form. Unlike paint, the colour is not mixed with a liquid binder and applied with a brush. It is immediate, tactile and intense. Mandy even makes her own pastels and uses them with a freedom that belies their reputation for delicate, fragile work.

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