IT'S a bitingly cold day, with frost on the ground, a big paving stone of grey up above, and bits in between which don't gladden the heart much either. On one side of the road there's Meadowbank Stadium, a notable example of 1970s non-architecture. On the other, a hamburger joint, grim at any time. But Anna King can find beauty here.
Well not here, exactly, but round the back. King had suggested we meet at the Edinburgh sports complex's entrance, but instead I find her in the car park, staring at lorry containers. Maybe she views the stadium as merely unlovely, and is unnerved by that, so she's come down among these hulking metal boxes to feel more at home.
"I painted the containers a while back and wanted to check they were still here," she says. "Often, the stuff I do disappears. But that's OK. It probably means an old, dilapidated building has been knocked down, or something's finally been built on a piece of scrubby waste ground. Hopefully the people approve."
King paints landscapes often neglected by other artists. But she also paints landscapes which some would run a mile from because they're just too iconic, such as Joan Eardley's Catterline. Ah, the boldness of youth. King is 23.
Photographs taken, we repair to a nearby pub. It's not the classiest, but I don't expect this will bother King, who is dressed like the art student she so recently was, in jeans, lots of bobbly layers and turquoise pixie boots. King was born on Shetland but has spent most of her life in the Borders. She lives in the village of Greenlaw, near Kelso, and cycles to her studio every day. This might seem a soothing environment in which to paint, but King likes to work with Radio 1 blaring in the background, while sessions are often interrupted by black smoke belching from her boyfriend's welding workshop in the basement.
King's sold-out degree show at Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 2005 marked her as one to watch, and last year she scooped top prize in the inaugural Jolomo TSB Scotland Awards, aimed at encouraging landscape painting among a new generation. But she took time to find her style.
"Early on at college, nothing worked," she says, clasping her coffee cup for warmth. "That was very frustrating. I thought I was rubbish and that I'd have to do something else. But in fourth year things started to make sense. I'd been on an exchange trip to Utrecht in Holland and, staying in a tower-block for the first time in my life, I got interested in cityscapes.
"Then back in Dundee, I noticed this piece of waste ground. It was on the walk to college, but it hadn't caught my eye before. There were weeds growing everywhere and I loved the lawlessness of the place. Apparently it was supposed to be the site of the city centre, but after it was found to be polluted, the plan was abandoned. It was a no-man's-land, really feral, so I just started to paint it."
Quickly, the run-down, the rusting and the paint-peeled became her world. She'd be in the car with the boyfriend when she'd shout "Stop!" "What's wrong?" he'd say, until he began recognising her excitement whenever a caved-in hut or an apology for a tree appeared in view. I ask her about influences. She apologises for not knowing her art history sufficiently to quote the name of the pre-eminent painter of lorry containers, if indeed such a person exists. Then she mentions a photographer, the German Andreas Gursky, renowned for big-form images of the workplace and the rave concert. King's first heroes, of any kind, were the Prodigy.
She's a big fan of Joan Eardley, but had never seen one of her paintings up close when she accepted an invitation to stay at the artist's former studio in an old Customs and Excise watchtower in the Aberdeenshire village of Catterline – inspiration for some of the most hauntingly memorable images in the Scottish landscape tradition.
"There's no TV in The Watchie," she says. "You can't even use a hair-dryer because the place is wind-powered. So you work without distraction." Is she easily distracted? "I was going to lie there, but yes!" Her take on the rugged coastline is nevertheless stunning. She's a different painter, preferring spidery lines to the seagull splats of oil which characterised Eardley's work. King paints quickly, and you imagine the music from the radio driving her on.
The daughter of two teachers, King formed a rock band in her teens. "There was nothing for young people in the Borders to do so we made our own entertainment." She's still in a band now. They rejoice under the name of Katie and the Dull Fuds, and after our chat, with King on bass guitar, they've got a gig in Edinburgh. So if they were to win a record contract, which would she choose, music or painting? "Oh, painting is my life, definitely, but if you're saying I could have time off to go on a world tour…"
Painting is going to take her travelling this year, anyway. With her £20,000 prize money from the Jolomo competition – set up by the painter John Lowrie Morrison – she's heading for Russia which, post-Communism, should throw up plenty of inspiration. "I'm hoping to find whole abandoned towns there," she says.
With the idealism of youth, King says she wants to paint forever. But she adds that the minute it seems like the stuff is being churned out, she would stop. Some might wince at her choice of subject, but King, a proud Scot, insists her work does not contain any negative comment about her homeland.
"Our rolling hills and all those woods and waterfalls will always be there," she says. "I definitely look at things differently. But I think that what I see is beautiful, too."
Anna King, Recoat Gallery, Glasgow, exhibition ends Wednesday
www.anna-king.comREVIEW RECOMMENDS
DANCE
SCOTTISH BALLET: SLEEPING BEAUTYScottish Ballet's sumptuous revamp of the classic ballet, below, choreographed with Ashley Page's customary dark edge, comes to Edinburgh.
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-529 6000) Wednesday-Saturday, 7.30pm (also Thursday and Saturday matinee at 2pm)
MUSICAL
THE ELVIS YEARSDirected by David Mackay and containing 40 of Elvis Presley's hits, this concert tour production is adapted from the West End show and stars Mario Kombou as the jailhouse rocker.
Theatre Royal, Glasgow (0870 060 6647), Friday, 7.30pm
KIDS
THE WATER BABIES Last chance to catch the Arches Theatre Company's charming production of Charles Kingsley's tale that uses puppets, live music and performance. (Age 3+)
The Arches, Glasgow (0141-565 1000), finishes today, 1.30pm & 3.30pm
ART
SCOTLAND AND VENICE 2007 Homecoming exhibition from last year's Biennale representatives: Charles Avery, Henry Coombes, above, Louise Hopkins, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lucy Skaer and Tony Swain.
Aberdeen Art Gallery (01224 523 700), until January 27
THEATRE
THE GLASS MENAGERIEJemima Levick directs Tennessee Williams' classic. Set during the Depression, family tensions mount as a mother struggles to find a suitor for her shy and crippled daughter.
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-248 4848) Friday until February 9, 7.45pm (Wednesday and Saturday matinee at 2.30pm)
SING-ALONG-A
SOUND OF MUSICJoin Julie Andrews as the classic film musical is shown with lyrics to encourage a sing-along.
Theatre Royal, Glasgow (0870 060 6647) Saturday, 7pm
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