It’s been a slow spring here in Orkney, with the cold dragging its heels even as the light floods back and the evenings open up. But memories of the extraordinary blue-and-silver days of snow and hard frost we had back in February and March are coming back in...
When I was a kid, stuck in the family caravan in the Trossachs on yet another rainy weekend I’d get fed up of reading or drawing or staring out the window, and complain to my parents of boredom. I can remember my mother answering briskly “If you’re bored it’s...
At this time of year in Orkney the light fades so fast it seems to start getting dark just after lunch. As the Winter Solstice draws near we’re switching lights on by 3.30pm. By 4 o’clock in the afternoon the windows have become black mirrors. We draw the...
The natural environment of Orkney is strongly influencing my recent work, particularly the constant, dynamic movement of water and weather. I am thinking a lot about what it means to live on an island surrounded by the wide sea horizon, and experiencing that as a kind...
The stoor worm, or Mester Stoor Worm, was a gigantic evil sea serpent of Orcadian folklore. When the Stoor Worm was finally killed, as it died its teeth fell out to become the islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes, and its body became Iceland. The Stoor Worm,...
Pigment ink on paper, 4000mm x 1800mm, 2015-2018. The River is a large-scale drawing that developed slowly over several years, between 2015 and 2018. The idea for it began when I was on a winter residency at Timespan, in Helmsdale where my accommodation overlooked the...
