Blythe Plenderleith studied BA Hons Sculpture and Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art (2017-2021). After achieving a first in her BA, Blythe was awarded The Cass Art Scholarship to complete her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art (2021-2023), where she also gained a distinction for her thesis examining notions of perfection and making-do. Most recently, Blythe exhibited at RSA New Contemporaries 2023, Edinburgh, where she was the recipient of the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Award 2023.
Blythe Plenderleith
Blythe’s research and practice observes small town traditions of farming, harvesting, quilting, barn raising and furniture making thus aiming to redefine standards in an age of mass-production and cheap imitations. Drawing from her own experiences of community spirit and perhaps the darker underbelly of small town living, Blythe showcases a fascination with a certain mode of behaviour. Relishing the decorative arts of America as well as the traditions and techniques taken from her Scottish-American heritage, Blythe probes the terms craftsmanship, twee, needs-must and improving, questioning small town living and paying tribute to its historical matrix; necessity is the mother of all invention.