Scottish Seascapes

To me, the sea is the one thing that feels like comfort, like home and yet feels utterly daunting and challenging to paint. Scottish Seascapes came out of a commitment to this study of the sea and all things related to her. I travel the Scottish coast and islands, using sketchbooks to paint en plein air. This connection to place feels essential. These are later built on in the studio, or simply left as a visual record, a minding.
I paint in bursts, passionately and with instincts leading me round the canvas. The passion is found in exploring media and in finding new ways of making it suggest my experience. Some work may lend itself to the building of careful and sensitive layers, whilst others may require expressive impasto application. I am a fan of showing the media, the dribbles and strokes. The sea is not always smooth, it doesn't always require a big fuzzy brush to blend it all together. Sometimes it is okay for the waves to be articulated with a splat or gestural sweep. I want to show the media off, it's a partnership after all.