4 – 18 May 2019
This exhibition gave me a wonderful opportunity to bring together work I have done over the last six years connected in some way with nature. I have found inspiration for the work in the beautiful landscape of Scotland in East Lothian and the North West Highlands.
The work consists of paintings, pastel and ink drawings, and rubbings made from rock strata and tree bark. There are screen prints, lino and plate lithography prints.
My starting point is to look at features in the landscape. Examples include; Lhotse in the Himalayas and mountains in the North West Highlands, from the viewpoint of the Geopark near Ullapool and the Callanish Stones, Lewis.
I looked in more detail at intricate and wonderful organic growth, such as the tree hollows (above) that are drawn in pen and ink.
Over the last year I have used rubbings to show patterns of rock strata and tree bark. I have combined these rubbings with other rubbings of shells, smaller rocks or anything else with texture to make compositions (below).
Working in nature, I became interested in the atmosphere and different moods found as the days and seasons change. The mud flats at the Tyne estuary, Tyninghame portray this. Sunset and moon scenes produce atmospheric colours. A journey from green to brown, from full bloom to empty trees is portrayed in the mossy dyke at Yellowcraig and the tree scenes at Salt Green Plantation, Tyninghame.
As I looked at the shapes and patterns in nature I found iconic tree shapes. The Mother Tree and Sculptured Tree at Yellowcraigs and Scots Pine at Tyninghame.
