Edinburgh College of Art, Heriot Watt University, Scotland
“My fascination with large cities began in 1989 when my family immigrated to Canada. I had grown up in Loanhead, a small coal-mining village in Midlothian, Scotland, surrounded by little other than hills, valleys and farmland. In 1988 I was accepted to study fine arts at Edinburgh College of Art and left Loanhead to move to Edinburgh, which at the time seemed a huge city; so I was ill prepared for the skyscrapers that greeted me in North America the following year. I visited my family during school vacations over the next four years, eventually joining them in 1993 after graduating. On each return to Edinburgh I would dream of the huge cities I had visited in both Canada and the United States; becoming fixated on the never ending streets, bumper to bumper traffic and hoards of people that were so far removed from my life in Scotland.
Initially I found the cities both claustrophobic and overwhelming, yet I could never get enough of them. For years I worked in bars and nightclubs, often leaving work as the sun was coming up, and it was during these hours that I came to love living in the city. Walking home I would notice all the things I missed during the hustle and bustle of the day. Instead of looking down as I shuffled through crowds of people, I could see clearly down the empty streets: the details in every store front, the reflections off the windows in the tall buildings, the dew on the road. What would normally seem ugly, crowded, claustrophobic, loud became beautiful, peaceful, calm, still; even the odd car seemed to move in slow motion. I would walk home almost in a trance, as if walking through a dream.
I continue to go for walks downtown during the early hours of the morning each city I visit: rushing around all day finding my favourite spots, then returning to do quick sketches and take photographs before and during sunrise/sunset. Even after all these years it never fails to amaze me how peaceful it is during the early morning hours; even time appears to slow down. I find such beauty in the movement of a lone car or pedestrian surrounded by the still of the city.
When I paint, I attempt to capture a moment in time rather than simply depict a scene, to create a sense of peace where it would not normally belong, to show that just as in nature the city center can be and is beautiful.”
“After many years of traveling and painting the cities of North America and Europe, I decided to explore and spend some time in Central America. I inevitably ended up spending the majority of my time by the ocean and was drawn back to my youth in Scotland, where as children my family spent much of our time by the sea.
I returned the following year (and every winter for 9 years until moving permanently in 2011) and began studying the waves, the colours, the light and the continuous movement from one second to the next. I learned to recognize the patterns of the sets in the distance, the waves as they crash to shore. The process of learning how to paint this new subject after so many years of painting urban landscapes was at first a challenge. After years of structure, angles and lines, switching to the random of nature took some time to adapt. I find there are still similarities between the two styles: the sense of movement, of capturing a moment in time and the feeling of solitude. By removing the presence of people from the beach, the viewer is left with the sense that they are the sole observer of the time and place painted.
The ocean to me evokes a sense of peaceful tranquility, an opportunity to catch one’s breath and contemplate. Often the things that seem important in city life lose their significance when sitting on the beach staring into the ocean. It is my hope that my paintings evoke these same sentiments
