A little bit about us…..

Meet Carlie:

Growing up on the Isle of Mull meant that my childhood was shaped by wild coastlines, sweeping skies, and the constant presence of the sea. Although I didn’t realise it then, those early adventures planted the roots of a lifelong love of nature, animals, windswept landscapes,  the plants and seaweeds, and especially of the water that has always been a constant.

Creativity has been a quiet thread running through my life, woven in between the years I spent in the corporate world, a place where I never truly felt I belonged. It wasn’t until a recent redundancy nudged me off the familiar path that I finally allowed myself to follow that thread back to where it wanted to lead, into the studio, back to college, and wholeheartedly into art and design. It was, without question, the best decision I’ve ever made.

The sea, as it so often does, brought me so much more than I expected. It was cold-water swimming that first introduced me to Karen. She had set up the local group I joined, and before long we discovered not only a shared love of the ocean.  Our friendship grew and so did our creative ideas. From that blend of saltwater, nature, laughter, and artistic curiosity, Fraileach was born.

Today, my work is a celebration of the elements that shaped me, wild places, deep friendships, and the courage to return to what feels true.

Meet Karen:

I have, since childhood had an affinity to water.  Being beside water, being on water and being in water.  It’s something I took for granted in my childhood and didn’t think too much about it.  My mum used to call me her ‘water baby’.  When we had days on the beach, you would find me floating on a Lilo in the sea bobbing up and down for so long, I’d still feel the motion of the water lying in bed at night.

I’m a photographer and have been for 20 years now and as well as lecturing in Photography, I undertake personal photography projects which more recently have moved from portraits to seascapes and landscapes.   The images I have been creating is the product of a journey of self-discovery and reflection as my own personal landscape changes. Finding calm, grounding, reassurance and sense within mountainous landscapes as well as in the vast and powerful sea.  I have tried to capture this sense of calm and reassurance in my photography.

In 2021 I started wild swimming and started a swimming group.  It was through wild swimming that I met Carlie, and over the years we’ve become close friends.  We discovered we both loved creating and then found pressed seaweed and decided we would try this too and experiment with our results, we had so much fun! 

Our idea at first was to make some pieces of art to sell, all themed and inspired by the Scottish coast.  The more we met to create, the more the ideas flowed!  It was incredibly exciting letting our vision develop.  When the opportunity of a Sauna came up, it all seemed to make perfect sense and so here we are, Fraileach Coastal Art and Sauna and it’s only just the beginning……Of our ‘Arty Sauna’ Fraileach.