Born Glasgow 1958,
I have lived here all my life. I have a particular love of the
Blane valley countryside with its diversity of wildlife, rivers,
moorland and hills. My daily walks supply me with colour notes
for painting and the sheer enjoyment of seeing the constant changing
of light and season.
Largely self-taught, I have
however benefited greatly from attending life classes under Christine
Ironside, Drummond Mayo and Ann Johnston. My greatest influences
in painting are varied from Rubens to Jenny Saville and I am very
much inspired by great drawing and painting.
I would probably describe
myself as a representational artist. My subject matter is always
real and studied; number of petals of any flower observed. Subject
matter changes from life, still life to landscape, though I would
tend to describe the latter more as weather-scape. When painting
life I am looking for mood and presence and for the skin to breathe.
With still life the colours are all there so I am looking for
light, while with landscape I am looking at the time of day and
the weather. Painting landscape in Scotland for me has to be done
with speed as the light changes so frequently and I have to take
pastel sketches and re-visit the site at the same time of day
on a similar day weather-wise to properly work on a piece.
I used to paint with a knife
but now tend to work quickly with fingers and rags, a method I
adopted for working on life. I sculpt the paint, feeling my way
and mixing on the board for speed and spontaneity and, whilst
I am aware that the paint is toxic, I cannot feel anything like
the same excitement when working with brushes.
My paintings are in private
and corporate collections across Europe and I was delighted to
be listed as one of the top 50 Scottish artists to invest in by
the Glasgow Herald 2007.
Galleries
Thompsons, Marylebone and
Aldeburgh
Morningside Gallery, Edinburgh
Manor House Gallery, Chipping Norton
Gullane Art Gallery
Mall Galleries, London
Green Gallery, Buchlyvie
Paisley Art Institute
RGI
The Atholl Gallery, Dunkeld
Jerdan Gallery, Crail
Annan Gallery, Glasgow
