When commissioned to paint Glen Loth I wanted to capture the hills of Beinn Dhorain, Loth Burn, and include the old croft (with its historical significance to the Highland Clearances*) in the picture.

Given the large-scale and open landscape, that often is the Northern Highlands, this turned out to be quite difficult to do. The location was not new to me, I know the area, and I had also painted these hills before. However, the new challenge presented, was to work out how I was going to fit everything in. I spent some time there sketching, and typical to Highland weather in winter, it hailed, rained, and snowed! There was nowhere easy to cross the river either, so getting across would have relied on wading with wellies on, or, on one occasion we took a step ladder to get across.

Eventually, the conditions were just right and with the help of my dad and his wide angled camera lens, we captured the perfect image for me to work from.

This painting now resides at Culgower House holiday home rental Helmsdale Brora - accommodation NorthCoast500 NC500

*The Highland Clearances (historic-uk.com)

I was asked to paint Tryfan, a mountain in North Wales, as it is a mountain of significant personal importance to the client. Having spent some time living in North Wales, it was a mountain that I was also very familiar with and quite excited to paint. It has a personal connection for me too. I had a few images in store and an idea of the composition and viewpoint of Tryfan that I wanted to paint.

I have also spent a lot of time running and scrambling on Tryfan in a variety of winter and summer weather conditions. This particular view was taken from a winters day when I went out for a solo run.

Commission Painting based on drone images taken of the farm, which is located in the North East of Scotland.

Being Alligin is a Scottish munro in the North West Highlands.

Being summer, with long days, I arrived fairly late to a layby on the road near Upper Loch Torridon. When got there I immediately started wandering around looking for the best view, whilst also trying to avoid the midges. The client wanted the mountain and the loch in the painting, but beyond that the brief was fairly open. I did not know if I would get good weather and/or good light for gathering inspiration, and on this particular evening, the evening light was not brilliant and the midges were starting to get the better of me.

Fortunately, early the next morning, the light was perfect. Efforts to get there and capture an image the client was happy for me to work from had not been wasted. We worked together to finalise the details, such as a size and composition we were both happy with, and luckily enough, I also survived the midges…