HER work really is divine. Alison Watt, the leading Scottish artist, is to have one of her paintings blessed by the church.

The painting, entitled Still, will be transformed into a sacred object by the Bishop of Edinburgh in a ceremony which is almost unprecedented in recent times.

Watt, who was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, and trained at Glasgow School of Art, was inspired to create the painting of a white draped cloth after visiting Old St Paul’s church in Edinburgh in 2003. She displayed the work in the 17th-century church as part of a temporary exhibition the following year and it has remained there since.

Episcopal church leaders and the congregation were so moved by the painting that they decided to give it an official blessing, making it a sacred object that can be used in worship.

The consecration ceremony, which will involve blessing with holy water, incense and anointing with the oil of Christ, will be conducted by the Rev Brian Smith during a visit to the church next Sunday.

Although pieces commissioned by the church such as stained-glass windows and memorials are consecrated, it is unusual for a secular painting to be given the same treatment.

“It’s very exciting to have my work blessed and it is unlikely ever to happen again,” said Watt, who is a lapsed Catholic. “The piece seems to have taken on a life of its own.”

Watt said she was deeply inspired by the church.

“I had wanted to make a piece of work for a non-secular space for some time because I was always inspired by religious art, but the idea came together when I walked into the church,” she said.

“As soon as the door shut it was completely silent and it felt like another world.”

Canon Ian Paton, rector of Old St Paul’s, said that the congregation had wanted to give thanks to Watt. “When the painting was hung two years ago the congregation really took to it,” he said.

Watt’s collaboration with the church is the latest in a long history of devotional works which have been created for the church by such great artists as Michelangelo, who created the frescos for the Sistine Chapel in Rome and Leonardo da Vinci, whose Last Supper was painted in 1498.

James Holloway, director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said: “It’s extremely unusual for a painting to be be blessed in this way. This seems exceptional.”

Watt, who is working as an artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London, first came to prominence in 1987 when she won the coveted National Portrait Gallery award. Two years later she produced a portrait of the Queen Mother which was compared by critics with a “Cabbage Patch doll”.

Times Recommends

• Time-worn Freddie gives up Test matches
• Brighton company 'involved in cyber attack'
• The art of survival: it’s all in the mind