My art has centered on signs and symbols, myths and legends, and the locations where they began and echoes survive in the culture and “on the land”. The alignment of art and artefact with abstraction has extended to abstract contemporary landscapes. Annual trips to Ireland and bonus trips to Scotland and Atlantic Europe have inspired my countless paintings, contemporary rug designs and “neolithic / painted cave” pottery.

These paintings reflect my visits to the dig, the world heritage sites, the museum collections, the ocean and the many talented artists’ studios. The landscapes resonate all of that to me. I have borrowed phrases from George Mackay Brown for titles – no one expresses this landscape like he did. Those two weeks will inspire my art for years to come – in particular I became very comfortable with a highly abstracted very loose representation of landscapes – capturing the light, weather, colors and sense of place.

I published a book Orkney Inspirations – Poetry and Paintings to share the art and writing I did while on Orkney.  It is available at the reception and from Blurb.com. You can get a link to the book from my website home page.  Enjoy!