'Survey' gallerytop 5th april-9th may

I am exhibiting at Gallerytop near Matlock, Derbyshire as part of a group show of landscape painters. (Kristan Baggaley, Heather Young, Martin Decent, Kellie Miller, Harry McArdle, Lewis Noble, James Wheeler) In addition to my four pictures exhibited in London there a three new ones shown below.


Allt Dearg Mor, Black Cuillins, Skye (sold)
Not the name of the peak but of the lively stream that cascades down the mountain and accompanies the walk to Bruach na Frithe. High up on the hillside is an isolated cottage looking so vulnerable against the backdrop of shattered volcano. The challenge was to capture this sublime setting and reflect it in the calm pools, and as ever to leave little trace of my passing in the paint. To be more painterly would be to litter the setting with urban artworld concerns and distractions. It is how nature actually looks in its infinite detail that excites me, not how I can then distort or reduce it.


Ribblehead, Langstrothdale, North Yorkshire
Have been meaning to paint this for a few years now. North of Ingleton above the waterfalls one emerges onto a plateau of limestone, fluted by wind and rain, stranded boulders here and there, sinkholes, and strange plants. Ancient tropical sea-beds end up here in north yorkshire and suddenly it is plain to see that all human life is a tiny and temporary interlude. We may not survive but the Earth will, the only evidence of us will be a seam of exposed strata millions of years hence, a fossil viaduct. Such are the strange voyages of thought that solitude in this place inspire.

Swirral Edge, Helvellyn, Cumbria
I have climbed Helvellyn several times, firstly aged eleven with the family and friends. Later on an art college field trip I could persuade only one other student to climb it with me, the majority opting for an afternoon smoking roll-ups in Glenridding. We caught the light perfectly and I did two paintings based on that climb, sold one of them to a dog-walker who used to pass by my studio window at Loughborough. Climbing hills was always easier after that, I was getting paid for it.
This picture is painted from a climb in late october as the low sun bursts under the clouds, thoughts turn to getting down before darkness. I think next time I will take a tent and stay up there for the full show.

New paintings, 'pinnacle series'

Here are four new paintings depicting Hebridean wilderness. In these I have deliberately sought out wild places, as far away as possible from the false constructs of human culture. They are being exhibited at the Affordable Art Fair next week in London. All are oil on canvas and 30"x20"



1. "Progressive Rock", Bruach-na-Frithe, Skye,

This was by far the most exhilarating mountain I have ever climbed, the sense of exposure on these jagged peaks was almost overpowering. The urge was to get down on all fours and crawl so as to feel less precarious. Twisted monoliths of gabbro and basalt confronted me with unknowable expressions, it was hard not to anthropomorphise their presence and feel an intruder among the ancient cosmic grandeur. This is from the summit looking back along the ridge towards 'the executioner'.

2 "Holiday in cyclopea" Bealach nan Lice, Skye

Another painting inspired by my climb up Bruach na Frithe. This is the view, long anticipated when the ridge is at last gained, looking over into the wilderness of Corruisk.


3 "The Quirraing", Skye

Watching the opening sequence of 'The Wicker Man' as Edward Woodward steers his seaplane towards Summerisle he flies over some spectacular spires of basalt, the weirdness of these forms creating an ominous mood to the film even before events unfold. This alien landscape is found at the Quirraing in NE Skye. Columns of basalt are slowly cleaving from the mountainside and slipping downwards in enormous sections leaving a maze of spires and paths between. I had read there was a large flat field in amongst it where cattle were kept secret from enemies and after some exploring we discovered exactly that; amid this chaos a flat pasture the size of a football pitch. It is a truly numinous location which the artist could spend his life depicting all the possibilities. From here you can look across the sea and see the highest mountains of the mainland nearly 80 miles away.

4 "Goats of Carsaig" Mull

Skye is truly magnificent but no longer an island now it is connected by a bridge to the rest of Britain, lorries thunder around its roads. Mull on the other hand is still an hour on the ferry from the mainland and it feels wonderful to be so isolated. This is Carsaig on Mull's south coast, some hours walk from the nearest road along a very rough 'path' one comes upon the fantastic basalt structures of the Carsaig arches. The coastline here is such a mix of geology, sandstone riverbeds, studded with boulders are sandwiched between hexagonal columns of basalt. It is easy to understand how early Christians were drawn here; was not this regular geometry proof of a creator? Yet ironically it was geology that demonstrated the vast age of the Earth and thus accomodated the theories of Charles Darwin. Indeed there is a natural selection of rock taking place here; survival of the vertical, that which was not absolutely upright is now boulders.

Here also goats have made their home miles from the human world, it is theirs and I am an intruder again. Maybe they just like to shelter under the rock but as I considered the form of the arch it struck me that it was very roughly goat-like, a horned form on legs. Do the goats see it so? Are they also drawn to the geology?

Why I am not painting the North York Moors

I have just returned from a few days in my hometown Guisborough on the edge of the North York Moors national park. In many ways it is a beautiful area, the open heather moorland stretches for miles and recent legislation allows us to wander away from the paths and feel a great sense of freedom.
This landscape has been the subject of many of my paintings and numerous locations are still 'magical' to me, places haunted by memories of childhood. I used to think this was a wild and natural place teeming with wildlife, but then I was embedded in the culture. My father has always been a regular shooting man and the language of the gamekeeper informed opinion in our house. We often ate what he shot; rabbit, woodpigeon and occasionally pheasant or duck.
I always appreciated that the moors were used for the rearing of red grouse, there are shooting butts everywhere (places where wealthy men hide with guns awaiting the grouse which are driven towards them by local peasants known as 'beaters') and the heather is burnt regularly to keep conditions suitable for grouse to thrive.
Now at entrances to the moors there are intrusive new 'information' boards where it is claimed that these conditions are also good for a hand full of other species such as the curlew (rarely spotted, wonderful cry) and the merlin (never spotted). What is not mentioned is the active persecution of other species which might predate upon the grouse. You will never see a buzzard here, a legally protected bird now so common elsewhere, I have even seen them over Nottingham. This month three gamekeepers from the area were convicted for laying poison traps to kill birds of prey, they were fined a few hundred pounds, moor owners will earn £150 for every pair of grouse shot.
Unexamined too are the effects of lead shot sprinkled in abundance over this 'protected' flora and fauna and the huge heather fires lit between december and april. Not only do these choke the valleys and villages with thick smoke they must have a huge carbon footprint and are continually destroying other plants and food-chains. I await the reply from the North York Moors park authority on this matter, but it looks a glaring anomaly to me. In all other areas we now recognize the urgency in limiting carbon emissions, why not here?
Why not let some of this vast grouse-farm return to the wild or even plant trees to offset the emissions. Let there be forests on the moor like at Birchover in Derbyshire. Let it become a wild place again to benefit the lives of the town-hunched folk rather than the tiny minority of super-rich from elsewhere. Let there actually be the biodiversity proclaimed on these notice boards rather than the destruction caused by this cruel and elitist victorian hobby.

This is what I see now when I visit. Yes the heather is lovely in august, but mostly its brown, gray or blackened. This is a spoiled landscape. No longer the wilderness of childhood.

Affordable Art Fair, London 2008

I will be showing new paintings at the Affordable Art Fair again this year. It runs from 13 - 16 March at Battersea Park London. My work will be among that displayed by Gallery Top and will comprise of wilderness pictures of Scotland.

New show

Thanks for everybody's concern over my migraines, I seem to be slowly getting back to normal vision. At least I am back to painting with no problems and have spent much of the last 2 weeks working on new, larger pictures of Skye.
I have been drawing inspiration and new perspectives from the excellent 'Wild Places' by Robert Macfarlane, a writer who sleeps out in Britain's most remote wilderness and articulates both what it is and historically was to engage with raw nature. A book I don't want to finish, it is making me fidgety to get away from the city.
Yet it is a good time of year to be getting on with pictures, the constant january grey is good for painting under. I can also announce my involvement in a new group exhibition at the Gallery Top, nr. Matlock, Derbyshire. The show, dubbed 'Survey 2' runs from April 5th- May 11th.

New drawings from Paul Foxton
Paul is honing something really quite special now he is back to his art. He was always a gifted draughtsman and these latest drawings have wonderful tonal balance and atmosphere. I really like the landscape quality of this table cloth. I urge you to visit his excellent site.

migraines

Since i was ten years old I have suffered from migraines. For a while in my teens I would get on average one attack a week. Then it gradually declined until now I normally get one attack a year. Then last week I suffered eight separate migraines between tuesday and saturday. I have never had such a concentrated cluster of attacks, rather than growing out of this problem I now find I am afflicted as never before.
Each attack proceeds through distinct phases beginning with visual interference known as the aura. This starts as a flickering blindspot somewhere in the field of vision. It slowly grows to form a crescent across my sight, pulsing and flickering in zigzag patterns in my head, superimposed on what I see. Typically this will last an hour and is unpleasant enough to make me have to lie quiet, eyes closed to minimize the disorientation of feeling half-blind. As the visual flickering subsides it is replaced by a full headache originating behind the eyes. My ability with words is impaired and there is a general bluntening of the mind. This continues for a couple of hours and then the end of the attack is signalled by a creeping numbness or tingling across the face and hands.
The doctor has given me some new drugs (zolmitriptan) to switch off any further attacks, results have been inconclusive though i have not relapsed for 4 days now. But I am not yet well. I cannot fully clear my head, my sight is still full of remnants of the aura, especially in the centre of my vision, there are spots before my eyes. Reading is slowed, painting is not possible, I have the tingling around the mouth and finger tips and it will not resolve. I am stuck in a permanent low-migraine and unable to reboot my head. Back to doc tomorrow.