Rud, whose mother was a composer, has a natural affinity with music, evidenced in the fluid execution of her paintings and choice of musical collaborators. The synergy between Rud and percussionist Evelyn Glennie is especially potent. In Vincent Ho’s Nostalgia, Rud imitated the ethereal vibraphone shimmers with squiggly upward brushstrokes that became houses, figures on horseback and otherworldly faces. And in Askell Masson’s Prim, to Glennie’s crisp staccato snare drum rolls and volleys she conjured images of a strutting cockerel and finally a crusader knight.

However, it was the improvisation between Glennie – who coaxed a beguiling soundscape from an array of exotic instruments – and David Heath on wooden and bass flutes, that produced the most intense collaboration with Rud. Musical ideas flashed like quicksilver between them in this highly charged, virtuosic performance. It veered from Glennie’s rock star turn on the drum kit to a mesmeric, almost shamanistic passage, as Heath’s growling bass flute buffeted the eerie sighing from a whirly tube twirled by Glennie above her head. This was mirrored in elegant sabre-waving figures that emerged from Rud’s constantly evolving paintings. Using colours that took on the luminosity of stained glass, Rud dabbed, smudged and carved out of the paint to make and remake her totemic images and symbols.

St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh
14 December 2013