I
am a Scottish born artist living and working in Edinburgh. I began my creative career at
Leith School of Art in 2002 where I left with a Foundation Course Certificate
with distinction and the painting prize for my year. I was admitted directly to
second year of a four year course at Edinburgh College of Art in Drawing and
Painting where my skills were channelled in new ways culminating in a Degree
with Honours.
Over
the past few years, alongside other employment, I have continued to develop my
work. In 2011 I was able to study again
at Leith School of Art on a two day a week drawing course which was of huge
benefit and particularly helped me to rediscover formal qualities in my work. It’s a great joy to continue my relationship
with LSA this year by becoming their resident artist. I will have three days a week developing my
practice in the school and a fourth day teaching alongside Kenneth Le Riche on
the Figure Drawing Course.
My
artistic practice is driven by a strong belief that I am made in the image of a
creative God who gives me the ability to create things of significance and
meaning. The main focus in my drawing
and painting is to investigate the profound qualities that exist in our
surroundings. I agree with Giorgio
Morandi, who said,
“Even in a simple
subject, a great painter can achieve majesty of vision and an intensity of
feeling to which we immediately respond.”
Like
Morandi I work from simple subject matter seeking to communicate the value and
richness of the world we live in. For
the past few years I have worked predominantly from still life objects such as
bottles, jars and animal ornaments. I
enjoy the fact that though these are seemingly lifeless artefacts, when they
are depicted in painting and drawing they are shown to have personality and
speak something of the depth of meaning in all that surrounds us.
Inspired
by artists such as Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, my work is characterised by
a language of expressive mark making. This character realises itself
successfully in my large drawings although I feel it is lost to some extent in
my paintings. This year, therefore, I
want to work hard at painting. I want to
make large, ambitious pieces that retain marks full of energy while successfully
depicting formal elements and colour.
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