About BIPA Studio
BIPA (Black Isle Permaculture & Arts) Studio is the creative practice of visual artist Clive Brandon and maker Julie Plumridge, based on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands. From our forest garden homestead, we create visual art, handmade textiles, and functional objects shaped by a shared interest in landscape, environment, sustainability, beauty, and everyday usefulness.
We work from our studio space within the house. In winter, this becomes the centre of things, with the wood burner lit and work shaped around dark, short days. In spring and summer, making fits in alongside gardening and running our eco cabins, moving between indoor and outdoor work as the seasons shift.
Clive’s work is shaped by observation and response to the surrounding landscape, while Julie’s work focuses on practical making using upcycled and reclaimed materials. These Permaculture inspired approaches sit alongside each other within the same space and rhythm.
This way of working carries through everything we do, from building and furnishing the eco cabins to making smaller pieces for the shop. The studio reflects an ongoing process of observing, making, repairing, and working with what is already there.
Clive Brandon · Visual Art
Clive works across painting, collage, photography, books, and interventions. His practice responds to the landscapes, architecture, spaces, and places he inhabits and explores, drawing upon a deep connection to the environment. Recent work focuses on the concept of the ‘constructed landscape,’ exploring how human intervention shapes and reshapes natural spaces.
Through an experimental and often improvised process, he uses a diverse range of materials, including cardboard, scrap wood, and paper, combined with watercolour, charcoal, and newsprint. His pieces evoke both real and imagined landscapes, grounded in observation and experience rather than direct use of site materials, and speak to broader questions about our relationship with nature. These works are informed by the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi, celebrating imperfection and impermanence, alongside ‘Casualist’ influences that embrace the unfinished and temporary.
Light and space are central to the work. The space within and between elements allows the viewer to move through it, much like navigating a landscape or reading a map. Since relocating to the Highlands, the work has become more attuned to seasonal rhythms and environmental change, reflecting an ongoing engagement with place and the wider ecological context.
Julie Plumridge · Handmade Crafts
Julie’s work is rooted in practical making and resourcefulness.
She creates handmade textiles using sewing, knitting and crochet. Many pieces are made from upcycled or reclaimed fabrics, including cushions, bags, clothing, and home items designed for comfort and everyday use.
Her approach is shaped by a background in environmental science and a wide range of hands on skills, from growing food to preserving and cooking. This carries through into her craft, where materials are reused thoughtfully and nothing is wasted where possible.
Each piece is simple, useful, and made to last