Lands Beyond: New collection in progress.

A work in progress from the
Lands Beyond collection.

After the sunset
A beauty concealed to most
Under stars that shine

I’ve had endless painting energy for several weeks now, spending up to 12 hours a day at the easel, reluctantly breaking my flow to stop for food and sleep.

It has arrived, like always, after a brief spell of not knowing what to paint next. Today’s world may have you believe that there’s no time for creative block, that we must constantly be innovating, else we become stagnant.

Sadly, that denies us the downtime we so desperately need, to dabble with boredom, to return to ourselves and follow our curiosities.

I have learnt that this intermission is a healthy part of my process and growth as an artist. I have also learnt - for the most part - to embrace it.

In the pause between painting sessions, I asked for inspiration and took myself off on a walk. I arrived at Starbank Park here in Edinburgh, where I stopped to read the plaques on the benches.

One had the words from the Walter Scott poem Bonnie Dundee,

“There are hills beyond Pentland and lands beyond Forth”

I took this as a sign to name my new series, ‘Lands Beyond’. It seems especially fitting as we crawl out of lockdown and dream of lands to visit beyond what we have known for the past year.

The rainy weather has meant I can sift through the hundreds of photos I have taken of my subject and analyse the colour, light and forms in the sky and how they play with those on land. I absorb all of these images and recreate them, in my own way, onto the canvas.

And I hope to capture something else, something I have still to figure out and perhaps never will. Something that exists in these places, in our existence, but is fleeting, intangible. Perhaps it is light, mood, atmosphere, our hopes and memories, magic, or all of those things melded together.

Video showing the creation of my painting titled Away To The Hills, from my Lands Beyond series.