Artist Statement
I am an oil painter based in Newmachar, Aberdeenshire and a graduate of Gray’s School of Art (2024). My practice centres on the Scottish landscape and the emotional resonance it carries — a continual source of inspiration and exploration. Drawing influence from the Impressionist masters such as Monet and Cézanne, alongside the romanticism of Constable, I seek to reinterpret their sensitivity to light, colour, and atmosphere through a contemporary lens.
My paintings emerge from a combination of plein air studies and studio work. Working outdoors allows me to engage directly with the environment — to capture fleeting impressions of weather, shifting light and the rhythms of rural life. These initial observations become the foundation for imagined scenes developed later in the studio, where memory and imagination intertwine. Through this process, the paintings move beyond documentation, becoming spaces that exist between reality and recollection.
Colour plays a central role in my practice. I use vibrant, sometimes unexpected combinations to convey emotional intensity and to challenge traditional notions of landscape painting. Abstracted elements often appear within the compositions, reflecting the fluidity of memory and the way our perception of place evolves over time.
In reworking the language of Impressionism, I aim to create paintings that feel both timeless and current — rooted in the traditions of landscape painting yet open to new interpretations. Each work is an attempt to capture not only how a place looks, but how it feels to inhabit it: the quiet moments of reflection, the shifting air, the sensory pulse of the land itself. Through this balance of observation and imagination, I hope to evoke a shared sense of connection between viewer, memory and landscape.