When Denise told me about this exhibition I was thrilled. It made me feel incredibly proud to have worked 20 years with the Castle Gallery. To be able to work with Denise and the staff at the Castle gallery for this long has been a complete privilege. I say this because the dedication the gallery has to the Artists are like no other. The volume of sales that we have achieved over the years have been a testament to the artist and gallery relationship.
20 years ago I visited Knoydart for the first time in my life, I got in the car and drove to mallaig and it was my first visit to Scotland. Driving through Glencoe in the middle of the night I knew I was somewhere special. I got out of the car and walked around in the pitch black and saw the most spectacular stars.
The morning light in Knoydart was incredible, I was almost emotional I had never witnessed such beautiful landscape. From that moment I was hooked.
My first visit to Scotland was Knoydart, my first introduction to becoming a landscape painter was Knoydart. I was completely transfixed and from that point on dedicated my life to being a painter. It was during my Fine Art degree course I visited Scotland and then went onto my Masters Degree in Barcelona.
This is why Knoydart is important to me, I wanted to put in the works on paper also to show that a lot of sketches and preparation goes into the making of a painting, not only the years of exploration in paint but the colour studies also.
The works on paper are paper size 30x39cm framed 40x50cm, these will be framed for the show.
The painting last light Knoydart is about the sun setting and how it comes up again, and that this in itself is a reassuring thing.
It is only landscape for me that can give you these kind of certainties and I like that.
