Artist Statement - Painting has been a constant and developing passion in which I am increasingly absorbed. Inspiration still comes from trips to the islands around Scotland, as well as further afield in Italy and Australia and closer to home in the more gentle rural landscape of the fields and hills around my studio here in Angus. Landscape continues to be the stimulus for much of my painting. Over time the work has become more abstract and I work freely with the paint to express the mood and atmosphere of time and place. Working on a subject,I may produce a series of paintings, refining each attempt as in the drafting of a poem.
The work I have selected for this exhibition concentrates largely on images inspired by elements encountered in the immediate surroundings of my studio and garden; images observed constantly and absorbed, distilled to be later painted in the studio.
‘Spring Planting’ for example was painted quickly and directly as a simple statement of the beauty , symmetry and graphic quality of a newly planted leek bed.
In contrast the two paintings, ‘ The Flood’ and ‘Into the Calm’ have their inspiration in ’The Great Flood’ from Edwin Morgan’s sequence of poems,‘Planet Wave’. Here I try to use the paint freely to express the threatening storm and the calm of the aftermath; the narrative moving across the painting from left to right ‘into the calm’.
1961 -65 Duncan of Jordanstone College of
Art Dundee D.A. Drawing and
Painting
1965 Awarded David Murray Studentship.
Royal Academy Schools London
1965 -66 Dundee College of Education
1966 -88 A period of Art teaching in Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands during which a parallel developing interest in ceramics led to the establishment of my studio at Insh near Kingussie.
In 1988 I gave up teaching and established my present studio at Oathlaw, initially mainly working in ceramics. Over the
years painting has increasingly absorbed me and I have now given up ceramics to
concentrate full time on painting.
SelectedExhibitions
RSW Annual exhibitions Edinburgh. 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
RSW Summer Open exhibitions 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
On a small Scale’ Open Eye Gallery Edinburgh 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
2020 Bring in theLight’ Tatha Gallery Newport
2020 Heinzel Gallery Winter Exhibition Aberdeen
2020 Heinzel Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition Aberdeen
2020 Primavera’ Eion Stewart Fine Art Galley Stonehaven
2019 Union Gallery Winter Exhibition Edinburgh
2019 ‘Decade’ Union Gallery Edinburgh
2018 Christmas Exhibition’ Union Gallery Edinburgh
2018 Even More Alchemy’ Tatha Gallery Newport
2018 ‘Fur and Feathers’ Fotheringham Gallery Bridge of Allan
2018 New Works’ Union Gallery Edinburgh. Two person Exhibition
2018 Not As it Seems’ Tatha Gallery Newport . Four person Exhibition
2016 Spring Exhibition Tolquhon Gallery Ellon
2015 Open Eye Gallery Edinburgh. Mixed Exhibition
2014 VAS Members Exhibition Peebles
2019 Sir William Gillies Award’ RSW 139th Winter Exhibition
2015 “Commended” Annual Winter Exhibition Meffan Gallery Forfar
2009 Second Prize Annual Exhibition Meffan Gallery Forfar
1998 £500 Purchase Prize Annual Exhibition Forfar
1965 David Murray Studentship Royal Academy Schools London
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aberdeen Art Gallery (ceramics)
Angus Council Collection (painting)
Duncan of Jordanstone College Collection (painting)
COMMISSIONS
Royal Tay Yacht Club Veitchi Group Trophy
Bank of Scotland Two Arts in Business Scotland Awards
Acrylic
£
800
Sold
73 x 92 cm