I am a painter specialising in landscape art in a variety of media. I live in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and my landscapes are of the wild areas of Britain – mainly Scotland and Wales. My paintings do not always represent specific places, but are often my impressions gathered during many walks with sketchbook and pencil through the heather and deer grass to remote hills and crags; and along windswept coasts to lonely rocky headlands and the vast sandy bays of the west.
I believe it is imperative that artists should develop their vision and techniques over time and that in the process they should think deeply about the process of art making. But the result of that thinking and experimentation must be expressed through the paintings, because in the end, painting is not writing – the paintings must stand on their own as a testament to what the artist has tried to achieve. It is up to others to decide whether my paintings succeed in evoking what I intend – what D.H. Lawrence called ‘Spirit of Place’ – perhaps a memory of an experience you’ve had, somewhere you once stood, somewhere you would like to be, or even a dream that you recall.
