My exhibition at Orcadian and Scottish artists' exhibitions in St Margaret's Hope Orkney gallery (workshopandloftgallery.co.uk) started last friday 5th April and finishes on tuesday 30th April. The exhibition explores the theme of light through a variety of recent mixed media paintings. Orkney is famous for it's big open skies and light which changes constantly throughout the seasons. Often you can have four seasons in one day and it can be bright and sunny in one part of Orkney and rainy and cloudy in a different part, and with the variety of weather comes the change in the light. I have always drawn inspiration from Orkney's landscape, fauna and flora and my paintings in this exhibition explore all those things together with the light and shade. I have twenty seven different paintings in this exhibition, on entering the room, four large 'circle' paintings on the end wall make an immediate impression, three of these paintings are of huge waves hitting against the Birsay shoreline at The Brough of Birsay on a bright winters day in January. Each wave painting has a line of poetry by the Orkney poet Robert Rendall hidden amongst the breakers. A fourth circular painting is of an icy rockpool, the icy patterns glittering on a cold and frosty day.
At the opposite end of the gallery there are eight smaller square paintings, four of which I painted with my favourite medium of watercolours, two of Orkney birds, Gannets and an arctic tern set against a rich blue sky and the other two of the wild Orkney sea breaking against the cliffs of Marwick head and North Birsay. The other four square paintings are of more abstract subjects including grasses and butterflies.
There are two mixed media paintings based around Stromness pier, playing with the colour, light and reflections of the fishing boats and fisherman's buoys in the harbour.
Another mixed media painting is of the new stain glass window in St Magnus cathedral, this painting explores the light and shadows created by the sunlight shining through the stained glass window.
