Sarah Keer-Keer    Divers

I am a scientist and also an artist. In 2002 I began

attending life classes with Damian Callan, at his studios in

Edinburgh, which he refers to as ‘The University of Dalry’.

I concentrated at first on the figure drawn from life. The

human figure, in particular the moving figure, is Damian’s

area of excellence and he was an inspiring teacher. I had

a toddler and baby back then, and I could spend my days

watching their chubby limbs, animated expressions and

The depth concentration I achieved in those classes, was

in stark contrast to the chaos of being a hands-on mum

to two little ones. I loved it. Later, after attending courses

on landscape and cityscapes in 2006, I concentrated on

those areas and left figurative art behind for three years.

I started to work as a professional artist and Damian

 In 2009, I came back to working with the human figure,

but I found I wanted the complexity of the figure in

motion and with the environment. I started painting

fishermen at Port Seton, then ice-skaters at Murrayfield

I’ve had a fascination with the beauty of board diving for

some time. The shapes the divers hit at the apex of their

dive are a delight to behold. They last just a fraction of a

second, but they feel, like art itself, an ephemeral

Edinburgh Diving Club is a top diving club with young

athletes competing at international level. Whilst the

Edinburgh Commonwealth Pool was being refurbished,

they trained in a small pool close to where I live. I went

to watch them one day in 2010, and found myself signing

up my kids (then aged 11 and 8) and myself, for classes.

The old pool in Newbattle had very limited diving

facilities: only two boards for the whole club and a dark-

stained, low ceiling. Sometimes the best young divers

bounced so high before a dive, that they could touch the

ceiling. The divers never complained about the limited

facilities. They just got on with it.  They were a great

bunch of athletes, always kind and encouraging with our

The main club trainers Vicki Tomlinson and Mary Sless,

ran a tight ship. They watched every dive performed in

training, giving individual feedback on each dive. They

didn’t allow misbehaviour poolside, but stayed tolerant

of the good-natured playing that takes place: the

youngest boys sometimes played in and out of the water

I watched my children as they overcame various hurdles

under Mary’s guidance: prior to diving lessons, my 8-

year-old could not swim confidently, add to that her fear

of heights, and you will appreciate that when she finally

executed a lovely dive from the 1 meter board, I felt like I

Divers were encouraged regardless of their age, level or

potential. Some dived for the joy of it, or for the

friendships they had made: one pair of girls met up every

Friday night to dive together, and then putting on their

pyjamas in the changing room, would head off for a sleep

over. All the divers encouraged each other, falling silent in

sympathetic concentration when someone was about to

try something new and difficult. Blasting out wolf-

Some of the divers at this Scottish club were heading

towards big things: Grace Reid (who was the youngest

Scottish competitor at the 2010 Commonwealth games),

James Heatly and Amber Foster, to name but three. Will

any of them make into the 2012 Olympics? We will have

to see. They will surely be at the 2014 Commonwealth

games (the diving will be held in Edinburgh

The club, it seemed, could teach anyone to dive. Even

myself at 39, older adults too, with no previous

experience. If you have never dived as a child, you will

never make a perfect fluid dive, but still we all tried.

Everyone was accepted and inspired to push themselves.

I was fascinated by how one minute the divers would be

laughing and playing with each other in the queue, and

the next minute they would be poised at the end of the

board, in the rapt concentration that is required just

before a dive. I watched enthralled as my own children

developed the discipline of intense concentration just

The moment just before a dive became a real focus for me. When I stood on the end of the board, I thought only

of the dive: everything else fell away. I would imagine all the movements and positions of the dive. If I

concentrated perfectly, I could do as a good dive as I had imagined. If I let my concentration slip, even slightly, I

would fall apart mid-air, the sore slap-sound I hit the water alerting the other divers to my terrible dive. I felt that

everything needed to create the perfect dive was contained in that moment before; it held a tension and a purity

The club embraced the idea of me painting the divers. They understood about how beautiful diving was and how

it can’t always be captured by a photograph. The parents of young divers also liked the idea, giving myself and

My paintings were influenced by the local pool and its dark-stained wooden ceiling. The diver’s bright, golden

flight, framed by this dark background, got me researching the paintings of Rembrandt and his use of

transparent glazes. Whilst completing preparatory sketches, the illustrator Dave McKean became a big influence:

I wanted in my paintings to have some of the immediacy of the gothic, glowing illustrations he painted for Neil

I hope I have captured what it is like to focus and train for a great sport. All the concentration, precision and

http://www.edinburghdivingclub.org.uk  The Edinburgh Diving club returned to the Edinburgh commonwealth

Pool in March 2012. Why not join them?This club will remind you about everything that is good in sport, and

push you to discover confidence and abilities you didn’t know you had.

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These paintings will be exhibted at the Red Rag Gallery in Stow and Bath June / July 2012