This year I’m really pleased to have two paintings in the An Talla Solais Members’ Online Exhibition. Over the past few summers I have been able to see a wide range of artists’ exhibitions at the gallery in Ullapool, and been able to attend openings and go to talks by artists. Looking back I recognise how influential elements of these experiences have been in the development of my own practice, so it is feels particularly significant to have this connection this year when I couldn’t visit as usual.

The visual arts centre is a charity which offers exhibitions, art-based activities, support and other opportunities for the local community and for practising artists across the North west of Scotland. Have a look around the exhibition here.

Most years at this time I make a trip to the Highlands.

It had been a year since I had last crossed The Firth and left Orkney. My annual summer trip to Bridge House Art in Ullapool had been a casualty of Covid, so this time I returned to one of my favourite places in Wester Ross.

The scale and drama of the Assynt and Coigach mountains are a profound contrast to the Orkney landscape I am used to for most of the year. The huge personalities of the mountains demand attention, cloaked in vast sweeps of rusty velvet. The vivid colours of autumn trees and the silhouettes of larch, spruce and pine are refreshing respite from the grip of the relentless Orcadian horizon.

This year it felt more valuable than ever to experience and appreciate these differences.

I think soaking up a sense of place, walking and looking, sitting and watching, can sometimes be as valuable as drawing and responding to make a sketchbook record. I brought most of the colours and shapes home in my head, and returned with fresh eyes for the familiar.