Artwork
My work considers our relationship with nature, in particular how we experience and interact with wilder landscapes and biodiverse habitats. I explore and research nature reserves; recording and photographing different species and writing poetry to capture fleeting portraits of each visit, building reference material for paintings. I am interested by the sense of calm and restoration that we often feel in nature. Such complex ecosystems, far from overwhelming us, are often viewed as places of escape and relaxation. I try to unravel the aesthetic and sensory elements that create these emotional responses, looking at what makes up the unique character of a location; concepts of transience and shifting atmosphere, depth and mystery, imperfection and patina from weather, decay and growth.
Field studies and studio work use broad abstractions of visual detail, considering the qualities and components of different habitats such as peat bogs, coastland and forest floor. I explore colour and surface detail to create expressive paintings looking beyond visual representation to describe a closer experience. I tend to work across a number of series simultaneously using slightly different paint applications and visual techniques to focus on particular aspects of the landscape, beneath are some examples of this.
A closer look at the landscape from within the reserves; this series focuses on natural lines found with the habitat to move the eye around and describe the processes occurring in nature.
Paintings made or started in the field, to gather information about colour, texture, and form or as studies for studio paintings. I work mainly with gouache on location as it is water based, quick drying and safe for working in sensitive environments. I like the expressive quality of gouache for making direct studies of the reserves, observing differences in weather, atmosohere, flora and fauna and other elements which change throughout the seasons.
Impressionistic and expressive landscape paintings of reserves and habitats from around Dumfries and Galloway. Capturing the atmosphere of coastland, woodland, moorland and heathland in different weather conditions and at different times of year, this style of painting is wonderful for creating an impression of habitat evoking the emotional response we have to vast wide coastal views with big skies, or enclosed woodland sites surrounded by trees.