With a huge array of artists spread across the 3 Har­bours Fes­ti­val, there is no short­age of tal­ent in the area. Among the artists with exhi­bi­tions in Cocken­zie Power Sta­tion is local res­i­dent Wendy McCar­roll Sande­man. Orig­i­nally from Ire­land, Wendy has a stu­dio in Coburg House in Leith as well as work­ing from her home in Cocken­zie. The envi­ron­ment is the dom­i­nant theme of Wendy’s dis­play at this year’s exhi­bi­tion. “I’ve been very con­cerned about the area because it’s actu­ally a con­ser­va­tion area,” Wendy explains. “But because it’s a bit off the beaten track peo­ple don’t take as much care of it as they should”. Cocken­zie and Port Seton also has some listed build­ings and Wendy is con­cerned that the place might be dis­ap­pear­ing a lit­tle bit. But she also feels the pos­i­tive impact of events like the Fes­ti­val on the community.

“It’s fan­tas­tic that the 3 Har­bours Fes­ti­val has started up because it’s really been very restora­tive for the area.” Accord­ing to the artist, the Fes­ti­val has encour­aged peo­ple to think about the tra­di­tions and his­tory of the area. The inspi­ra­tion for Wendy’s work comes from the local envi­ron­ment and she seems to focus on the har­bour tra­di­tion in her exhi­bi­tion of paintings.The Irish artist spoke warmly about liv­ing in the area.

“It’s a fan­tas­tic place to live. It’s a very vibrant, very warm com­mu­nity. I’m orig­i­nally from Ire­land but I’ve very much adopted this as my sec­ond home”.

If you’re inter­ested in learn­ing more about Wendy and her work check out her web­site