I'm a Scottish painter and award-winning illustrator currently living in France. I'm interested in the dynamics of place and space including our experiences of the human relationships and digital and built environments that surround us.
I work in oils on canvas or oil paper. My paintings show how saturated, rich colour can be handled with sensitivity. Each painting is built up of many fine glazes over several weeks or months in order to create glowing colour in striking combinations, with moments of movement and stillness carefully balanced. I'm motivated by the natural world, travel, literature and ideas, the skies over Paris, my longing for social justice, the work of people I admire and the emotions of people I love.
Drawing is also a very important part of my practice, with most of my illustrations commissioned as light-fast ink linework carried out by fine nib or brush on archival-quality paper.
Photography and writing are supporting media that extend and feed into my paintings and drawings. I'm passionate about the artist community and my research writings investigate how artists' needs can and should be better met so that as many talented and committed individuals as possible can become and survive as artists.
My paintings and drawings are held in a number of private collections around the world. My illustration work has been commissioned by a series of major fashion brands, record companies, bands, theatre companies and private clients. I'm always delighted to discuss commissions!
I'm proud to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and a member of ArtCan and the Society of Scottish Artists.
The Visual Artists Association is an Artists Membership Organisation offering advice and mentorship to art practitioners. I'm pleased to be a member and even more pleased to have been chosen as #ArtistoftheDay on 3 May 2023!
You can see the original post, featuring a detail from 'Seine Bridges, Winter', here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrxnNKgtKH-/
The Society of Scottish Artists holds an annual exhibition of small-scale artworks entitled '30x30'. I'm delighted that my Lomo photograph of sunset over a north-eastern Scottish winter landscape was selected for the winter 2020-2021 exhibition! See more about this beautiful exhibition here: https://www.s-s-a.org/30-x-30-online-edition/
