I paint about being in the landscape, often quite specifically in the Scottish landscape where I live, to make a way of combining history and geography of place with the physical matter of paint materials.
I work in various sizes but in the last year my small paintings have got smaller and I have discovered how mark-making becomes enriched on a small scale on panel, while the very small can be as monumental as the large.
I have always been interested in what is human and un-human in the landscape, in terms of imagination, geology, mythology, our very ancient ancestors, our hominid family, and their art and ritual. This can reconnect us with the environment in a very real way, adding another layer to the concept of rewilding.
Recently I have been writing poems connected to Irish mythology and came across the legend of Oisìn, who was born as a deer through the dark magic of a vengeful druid. I love the idea of the hybrid figure, (similar to the Palaeolithic lion man figurine), a persona with no fixed identity but deeply implicated in country, and have incorporated him into paintings based partly on a trip through France and the Basque country, although Scotland’s woods and forests are there too.

This painting is of my garden and studio door, celebrating four years of making the garden happen, and four summers of painting in the studio. I grew most of the prairie flowers from seed, and have a greenhouse full of tomatoes. Now the echinaceas and prairie mallows self-seed in a riotous pinky-purple chaos. Also I have a thing about watering cans. You can see the influence of Paul Klee and Bonnard in this, even perhaps Matisse. I  am wondering about painting a “Pink Studio” next.

If you are interested in a painting, contact me through the form here on my website. Click on the ‘contact me for more information’ link in the menu.

 

 

Tell me you’ll come home

acrylic, paper collage, cold wax and oils on canvas, 2024, 120 x 100 cm.