The coastal villages of the Highlands provide me with all the colours, shapes and textures I need to make my paintings. It begins by going out sketching, looking for material that might be useful. Then, back in the studio, I try to combine elements that may work together compositionally to create paintings. I like to mix natural organic shapes and textures with the geometric shapes of manmade things like buildings and boats. The hills and sea, beaches and crofts, trees and birds, people and animals are all part of the landscape here.
My prefered medium is oil paint, as it is so versatile and colourfast. I enjoy applying it in thick slabs or thinning it down to splash and drizzle it over the surface.
In my studio I work on several paintings each day. There is always a lot of work in progress on the walls as I build up the compositions in many layers which takes a long time. This is why I make my landscape paintings in the studio - painting out of doors simply would not allow me to play and experiment with the materials in this way.
Quite often the base layer of my oil paintings is made up of paper collage on which I write stream of consciousness thoughts, and I try to leave some of this layer showing through as it looks like my thoughts and dreams are embedded in the land and wafting across the sky in the clouds.
When I go out sketching I use watercolour paint and pens as they are small and light enough to fit in my pockets. The sketches provide me with valuable source material to refer to. I also take photos for the same purpose, and find that looking through the lense of a camera can sometimes provide a fresh perspective. Going out sketching is the best way for me to hold the memory of a place in my mind, and allows me to later compose paintings of places from my memory and imagination.
