I am a painter and printmaker, living in Midlothian. An art school dropout, diverted by life, architectural education, lecturing in architecture and work in the civil service, I have been exhibiting for the last 10 years.
In 2022 I have simply enjoyed being out in the world again, reflecting what I see and feel about places and people's interaction with nature, from stone circles to the traces of portable barbecues. I've adopted a tiny format with a restricted palette of oil colours, easily portable and liberating. I am bolder in my use of colour and the descriptive power of not too many brushstrokes.
The twilight paintings reflect my life in the Autumn 2020 lockdown. I felt safest going out for exercise in the evenings. I became intrigued by the quality of artificial lighting in twilight . This added a new dimension to my interest in the synthetic, slightly uncanny landscape of urban edges. The scene observed, the viewer sensed but unseen. Vestiges of nature against the evening sky.
The images of Japan were made in Spring 2021. Theyare based on a visit pre-Covid when I learnt to make washi and wandered by myself in sweltering weather around Shikoku island, Kobe and Kyoto. Each face recalls a place and an experience - a memorial statue, a man on a bus, an actor on a poster, monks at a Temple, people in the street
The woodland pictures were painted on hot sunny days in 2021 at Yellowcraigs, East Lothian. Intense days of looking, trying to translate a complex scene into space on the page.
CV
Art education: North London Collegiate School; Harrow School of Art; Bath Academy of Art (briefly); Kingston School of Art (very briefly); University of Edinburgh Cert HE (very slowly). Architectural education: University of Liverpool: BA Hons Architecture; BArch; PhD
Exhibitions include Royal Scottish Academy Open, Scottish Society of Artists, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour at Meffan Art Gallery, Riccio Gallery Dalkeith, Penicuik Community Arts Centre, Whitespace, Thistle Foundation, East Linton Arts