For Open Studios this year I wanted to add some more colourful work into my collection. I haven't painted with oils for a while and thought it would give my fingers a rest from the intensive pressure that's involved with making and printing drypoints.
We had a two week trip around Scotland at the end of May, so it was an ideal opportunity to sketch and gather inspiration for this new work. I haven't been to the Highlands since I was about 14 and I hoped it was going to be as good I remembered...in fact it was even better. I'd forgotten just how magnificent the mountains, lochs, valleys and views really are. It was stunning, and also rather a daunting prospect; how to capture what we were seeing? I decided not to do straight forward representations of the landscape, but rather to work from memory and my sketches when I got back to the studio.
I'm really pleased with the, especially how they contrast with the ones of the Fens and also other 'memories' of places, from Yorkshire to Cornwall.
