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Mountains, moors, lochs, islands, the wild sea, and of course the endless sky, all have played a major part in the drama of my life.

I began my lifelong affair with the outdoors as a young lad of thirteen, venturing into the high, grey corries, scrambling along storm-black ridges into the vastness of the Scottish Highlands. Often lost, often cold, and always hungry, I craved the gale-blown places, the rocky shores, and the most distant hills. Poorly shod, and even more poorly clothed, I learned my craft alone, too tender in years to know any better.

By countless mistakes and courting danger in many guises, I slowly gained the art of survival and high adventure. Although loneliness stalked my every move, never could I explain, even to myself, why I yearned for the open spaces of the world. Yet, driven I was, by an urge more powerful than I could control or understand. If that were all I ever did, it would have been enough. But no, there was another great love that burgeoned at the same time, a love that influenced me in a completely different way, and yet was irretrievably entwined with my mountain life; painting.

I left school aged thirteen and so never had the chance to attend any art school, even had I wanted to, which I didn’t. I knew instinctively that I would have to learn this craft alone. I had no idea of the great part paintings would play in my life for the next half-century, but I would not have exchanged it for any price. I simply had to paint, and the subjects of my work were very clear and obvious to me. So began a second love affair; a life of capturing landscapes on canvas. In time, islands of blue, peat bogs of darkest brown, and moorland in purple, sienna, and gold appeared. Deep green woodlands, misty crags, vast sunsets, the fauna of the hills, sunshine, shadows, and waterfalls adorned the high tops and gullies. Home to me was the sun-bright beaches and the snow-graced serrated mountain ridges.

At various times in my career, it’s true that I have painted highly detailed cityscapes and marine life, fauna from other continents such as tigers, elephants, rhinos, gazelles etc. I even had fun with abstract work for a while! Yet, always, I returned to the Scottish Highlands; these beautiful, remote glens and straths, rivers and burns, the hills clothed in billowing clouds of purple and white heather, all framed by the delicate tracery of silver birches lining a Lochside.

I painted for me, for myself, as if to capture forever a moment of time that had held me, spellbound, so that I would never forget. I hope that my personal journey has touched the hearts of my collectors as it has touched me, and that by merely looking at a painting, one can be transported to the same moment, the same point in time, and stand in my footsteps and look with my eyes.