Western Isles

‘Western Isles’ explores the importance of our coastal landscape as an Island nation.  It describes one of the most dramatic and rugged coastlines in the British Isles, formed by a series of peninsulas and island groups. The palette is important to Forster in this work because of its uncharacteristic nature; the colours are perhaps untypical of the British landscape, symptomatic of the uniqueness of the location as the scene reconstructs a kaleidoscope of hue.  Light and dark also play a key role in the work, as the sun casts a distinct shadow across the scene, catching both the dunes and the rugged coastline with equal measure.

The artist comments that ‘for those who have never visited this region the colour palette may come across as a little unusual.  I wanted to create an almost foreign feel to it. In terms of the British landscape the Western Isles are about as different as it gets. In the late summer the colours on the heather and the huge white sand beaches offer a stark contrast to our common perception of typical British coastal landscape.’

The work is full of contrasting senses; wet and dry sand; the gentle tidal pools and fresh water streams running in from the hills.  As previously alluded to, there lies in this work a notion of stepping into a painting; with this painting it makes me want to be barefoot and paddle.  It has a more sensory element; you can feel the cold water and the sand between your toes.  It is also a painting about solitude; a theme that again is echoed through the work. If you are ever likely to have a beach to yourself then this is where it will be.

Something I really enjoyed working with in the Western Isles piece, was the foreground.  Similar to Cotswolds and Birch, this patterned foreground adds and echoes the mountain colours.  This is in stark contrast to the Dunes.  Shaped by the wind, they are like giant waves defiantly facing the sea.

These beaches of the Western Isles were made famous by the popular group of artists entitled ‘The Scottish Colourists’.  Formed in late Victorian Scotland, it numbered in its membership the artists JD Fergusson, Francis Cadell, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe. They went on to have a profound effect and popularity on Scottish painting, and have resulted in many contemporary artists visiting and painting these locations.