I paint Scottish landscapes with a geologist’s eye and the heart of someone who has always had an affinity with wild and lonely places. My paintings include both representational and abstract forms which emphasise the cycles of change, destruction and renewal which are imprinted on Scotland’s landforms. I try to capture something of the remorseless scales of time and space which underlie these landscapes.

I was a professional geologist for 35 years and have long appreciated the superb examples of geology at work in the Scottish landscape. As a hill runner, walker and wild camper I have also experienced the Scottish landscape in these other special ways.

The subjects for my paintings are always based on material I have gathered. This might be a hurried snapshot with my phone as I run along some rock-strewn ridge, a series of more considered photos during a walking trip or pencil sketches or plein air watercolour paintings. Or they might be half remembered and reimagined scenes from the my past.

I paint in both acrylics and watercolours (with a bit of dabbling in oils). I tend to use palette knives and thick applications of paint when I work in acrylics. This seems to be a good way of capturing the layering and fracturing of rock formations.