Western Isles 2009

The Western Isles painting 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. The Western Isles constitute a series of mainland peninsulas and the Inner and Outer Hebrides. The palette in the Western Isles painting is very important to me in this work because of its uncharacteristic nature; the colours are perhaps untypical of the Scottish landscape. As with any Uberpaintings the contrast is key to the painting, as the sun casts a distinct shadow across the scene, catching both the dunes and the rugged coastline with equal measure.

For those who have never visited The Western Isles the colour palette may come across as a little unusual. I wanted to create an almost foreign feel to it. 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.

Within the Western Isles painting there lies a notion of stepping directly into the composition, it should make the viewer want to be barefoot and paddle. It has a more sensory element; you can feel the cold water and the wet and dry 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 painting was the foreground. Similar to Cotswolds and Silver Birch paintings, 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.