About
The opportunity arose for me fifteen years ago to begin making art a serious focus alongside my work as a psychological therapist. My interest at that time was in drawing and painting the figure but, after many life drawing classes, I began extending my practice, working towards developing expression in my work and becoming more and more interested in the business of making paintings.
The process of exploration and experimentation is important to me, and finding new ways of working is always fascinating and often fruitful. I see my work as very much a process which is in development, and one that often seems outwith my hands.
In painting figures, what I find most compelling is exploring the many and various ways in which people express themselves and how these can be conveyed in a painting. My work often features people captured in moments of stillness or motion, composure or play, engagement or solitariness. What I’d like to think is that there exists a certain sense of intimacy, and that we’re being invited to reflect on the subjects’ inner lives.
Also, I love to capture naturalistic movement – sometimes particular gracefulness, poise or attitude, but at others the physical awkwardness of a body in motion.
By contrast in my urban landscapes people are notably absent but for me nonetheless they are still a ‘presence’ somehow, in as much as the evidence of their lives and activities is still evident in various ways.
I like to think that throughout my work, whether urban landscapes or figure paintings, there exists an ambiguity or sense of intrigue, and that there is space for the viewer to interpret the painting as they will.
My paintings have been exhibited by the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, the Society of Scottish Artists, Visual Arts Scotland and in The Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition.
I work from my home studio in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Exhibitions
2025
Summer Exhibition | The Royal Academy, London
Paisley Art Institute 136th Annual Exhibition | The Glasgow Art Club | Recipient of The Karl Stern Creative Figurative Award |
2024
SSA 126th Annual Exhibition | Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh | Recipient of The Paintbox School of Art Award |
WHAT IN THE WORLD a new primer Annual Exhibition | St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh |
Solo Exhibition THE TOWPATH | The Arts Centre, Penicuik, Edinburgh|
Summer Salon | Detail Art Gallery, Edinburgh |
VAS Centenary Show NOW AND THEN | Dalkeith Palace, Edinburgh |
RSA 198th Annual Exhibition | Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh |
RSW 143rd Annual Open Exhibition | Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh |
2023
PCCA Open Exhibition, Penicuik, Edinburgh | Award Winner |
2020, 2021, 2022, 2223 and 2024
LSA Summer Exhibitions, Year Long Courses, Leith School of Art | Edinburgh |