Achnahaird Beach Painting

My art is solely about Coigach, a group of tiny villages strung out on the northwest coast of Scotland where I live. Coigach is a very remote area wit few people living in it, a unique, prehistoric landscape of hills, bare croft land, beaches and islands. I love to be outside walking or out on the water. I feel driven to make work about this special place and my experience of moving around in it. I take many photos as I walk around and make rudimentary sketches and they act as references for my work. My interest lies in the shape of the land, the colours in the landscape, the changing light, the wild weather as well as the marks left by humanity - old walls, fence posts, telegraph poles, ruined crofts and lazy beds. I feel immersed, physically and emotionally in this landscape of my home. These are the things that interest me and why I want to come back to the studio and create. How I make paintings. The way I work is not set down in stone. Usually I begin with acrylic paint, inks and oil pastels and sometimes with collage. I don't have anything particular in my head apart from knowing it's going to be about the landscape. I start with the surface of the canvas or board and make marks in a very free way with nothing in mind. That excites me and I'll often document those early stages. I like what happens there, just letting go with materials and enjoying them for their own qualities. It is often lost completely in the future work but it does lead me to a place - the tone or mood will suggest something to me and I'll start to think about the composition. My aim is to keep things incredibly loose. I like to put down rough blocks of colour first. I scratch into it with various tools, wipe away with rags, and add marks with oil pastel and graphite. Decisions about design and colour change as I respond to what emerges and my move the painting away from initial ideas, leading me in a totally different direction. The work becomes its own entity and the studio is usually reduced to a huge mess!