Michael Autumn

by Michael Autumn

+44 7770590511

https://michaelautumn.wordpress.com

https://www.youtube.com/@Michael.Autumn

https://www.fineart.co.uk%2Fdirectory%2Fmichael-autumn_101904.aspx

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MichaelAutumnArt

I’m a self-taught artist. I learn best by doing things (as opposed to just reading about them), trying things out, research, patience. I loved school and really enjoyed most of the subjects, but I especially liked art (did a lot in my own time at home) and technical drawing. However, my art teacher advised me not to go to art school! She said I could teach myself all the art I wanted, and that I should study an academic subject – which I did (philosophy, psychology, and economics). With hindsight, I think she was wise enough to realise that art is a very precarious way to make a living, and, realising I had academic potential, suggested I get an academic university education with better career prospects – and pursue art at my own pace.

Life can lead you in odd directions – like floating in a barrel down a river or stream – and you don’t necessarily end up where you want to go. Sometimes you just have to get out of the drifting barrel, use your compass, and head off in the direction you really want to go. At, and after, university, I accidentally fell into computing, liked it, and found I had an aptitude for it – and so I drifted down that river for many very successful years – in many industries and several countries. But while it was very much appreciated by others – who paid me very well indeed for my work as a programmer, designer, technical architect/consultant – it was meaningless to me…

Despite being a bit of a polymath, I still got/get most pleasure out of creating things and, hopefully, giving others pleasure. I’ve always created things (painting, crafts, photography, videos, poetry) – it’s my nature – but sometimes you have to devote yourself entirely to something in order to really excel in it and achieve ambitious things. So in 2019 I decided to give up a very well paid career in IT to devote myself entirely to art.

Once I went to a Royal College of Art open day, with a view to applying for a full-time post graduate course in art, but I got quite a rude awakening/realisation. It was very apparent that it was not for me: it was clear they wanted mouldable minds (which I am not!), were mostly interested in “newness” or “originality” – almost to the exclusion of quality and aesthetics. Well, I am all about quality and aesthetics – as was the vast majority of art up until around about the 20^th century – and I make absolutely no apology for that.

My love for Nature informs most of my art. I am also very interested in philosophy and psychology – and this comes through in my art also. I don’t want to be one of those art college graduates whose art is only shown in galleries (because normal people don’t want it in their homes), and is passed by in seconds with people whispering under their breath “WTF is that?!”… I want to make art that at the very least is visually appealing, uplifting, and thought-provoking…

There’s always more than meets the eye in my artwork. I can’t, and don’t want to, recreate what someone has already done – or in a style or medium that has already been done. So you won’t find me doing “normal”: normal landscapes, normal portraits, normal still lifes – or normal whatever. I have to justify to myself why I am doing a piece of art – and why it is new or worthy…

Kathleen Cowie

by KathleenCowie

Artist’s Biography

Kathleen Cowie is a visual artist from the northeast of Scotland, UK and is currently based in Aberdeen.

Kathleen studied at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology [now Robert Gordon’s University] in Aberdeen from 1983-1987, graduating with a BA[Hons] in Fine Art, Drawing and painting. She also has an interest in printmaking and won the student printmaking prize in her third year at Gray’s. Kathleen then completed the Post Graduate Certificate in Education and became a teacher of Art and Design in Scottish schools for twenty-eight years, eighteen of those years as a Head of Art, and SQA marker for Art and Design.

Kathleen now focuses on developing her art, and tutors her own adult art group and specialist workshops for groups, communities, and clubs.

Kathleen has shown work with the Aberdeen Artists society, The Hospitals Trust,  Peacock Printmakers Aberdeen, and the Meffan annual show in Forfar. Her figurative art has been featured in the international Artist and Illustrators Magazine and she has work in private collections.

Artist’s Statement

Kathleen Cowie works across several art specialisms. She draws and paints from direct observation, sometimes developing the imagery into further paintings, mixed media pieces and original prints. Kathleen also designs and makes kiln-fired enamel jewellery and small products which are abstract in colour, shapes and texture and are often functional. She is also a regular ‘urban sketcher’.

Kathleen’s inspiration is wide reaching but includes an enduring interest in figurative art and portraiture, aiming to capture likeness, posture tension and character, an authentic human presence.

The observation of both random and symbolic still life objects and artifacts is also a theme. As are coastal and urban features of the north-east of Scotland. As a wild swimmer and scuba diver the marine environment fascinates and Kathleen’s paintings and prints in this area quietly highlight the beauty and importance of sea life and the need for its’ protection.

Drawing underpins all of Kathleen’s art and she aims to produce work that has simplicity and directness, but also refinement.

Jennifer Summers

by Jennifer Summers

jenniferannsummers.com

Instagram: @jenniferannsummers

Facebook: jennifersummersart

Jennifer is a self-taught artist currently based in Scotland. She has been actively practicing and exhibiting her art for the last ten years. The majority of her artwork is inspired from both her childhood home of New Zealand and from the United Kingdom landscape. Landscape and map scenes form the majority of her artwork.

Her drawings may appear to have two subject matters depending on the perspective of the observer. Casting your eye over a whole drawing, an image will emerge, slightly disjointed, and reminiscent of a never-ending maze in which no-one gets to the impenetrable finish line. Observing the drawings up close, the second subject matter rises revealing the suburban housing that constitutes each of the segments. These maps reflect suburbia with its endless streets and repetitive structure.

Anne keith

by Anne Keith

I am a digital artist working from my own studio in Aberdeenshire.

Since as long as I can remember I have always drawn and painted mainly in water colour but also creating monotype screenprints using procion dyes.

In 2004 I started up my own company Illustrate. And for the last 20 years I have worked alongside a geologist creating geological diagrams using the vector drawing software Adobe Illustrator. Parallel to this I decided to redraw some of my original artwork using Illustrator. I found I could achieve a distinct contemporary edge.

I always thought that art would be my chosen career path. However, my career took an IT route and I became Computer Support Manager at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service for Aberdeen, Orkney and Shetland.

Little did I know then that it would be technology and my computing knowledge and skills that would eventually bring me back to art and drawing that I loved.

Landscape and skies mesmerise me
Colour is of the utmost importance in my work. I spend a considerable time mixing colour. To me colour conveys the mood and emotion of a painting – to me it is the soul of a painting.
Observing the Scottish landscape – it is often colour that compels me to reproduce the image and capture the atmosphere of that moment in time.

It has been said that digital art and digital painting is the medium of the future.

In many online forums digital art and painting runs parallel to using canvas, brush and paint. In the words of another digital artist “Nothing will replace the flow of water and pigment across a canvas or the texture of oil paint after it dries. It takes time to learn the tricks in order to be a successful artist. Just as much as it takes time to be proficient in digital painting”.
One of Britain’s most influential artists, David Hockney believes the latest generation of software is so “fantastic” that he can not only reproduce the look of traditional painting but can also get more subtle effects than with old techniques.

Tadeusz Deręgowski

by Tad Deregowski

Brief Bio

I grew up in Aberdeen and studied Fine Art at Edinburgh University and College of Art in the 80s. I have returned this year to live in Aberdeen.

I`ve been painting these small, plein air paintings over the last fifteen years or so (they can be referred to as pochades) showing them fairly regularly, most recently at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil.

I like to travel and paint- the pictures engage with a diversity of locations, among them, North Africa, New York, Latin America and Scotland. The next big trip will, most likely, be to India.

Cel- O750 816 5898

Tadeusz598@yahoo.co.uk

Website-

https://tadeuszderegowski.blogspot.com/?m=0

Instagram-

https://www.instagram.com/tadeusz_deregowski?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Jenny Ross

by Jenny Ross

Joyce Taylor

by Joyce Taylor

http://www.joycetaylorart.co.uk

Born and raised in Aberdeenshire, Joyce Taylor studied drawing and painting at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen where she was one of three students in her year who were awarded the Patrick Allan Fraser Hospitalfield Scholarship. It was during that summer she was drawn to the villages and harbours of the Angus coast. Coastal villages, boats and seascapes are still an inspiration for her work, especially her local villages of Pennan, Crovie and Gardenstown.

When driving conditions are poor, preventing her from getting to the coast, Joyce works in her rural studio on still life painting or works from sketches previously completed outdoors.

After several years teaching art and design in secondary schools, where she was a Faculty Head of Art Design and Technology, Joyce decided to take early retirement so she could concentrate on her own creativity, and she has recently returned to painting full time.

Joyce has had the privilege of exhibiting her work in solo exhibitions in the UK, France and Canada.

Her paintings can be found in corporate collections in Scotland and France and in private collections in UK, France, Qatar, Jamaica, Germany, Norway and Canada.

Kymme Fraser

by Kymme Fraser

https://www.instagram.com/kymmefraserart/

https://www.facebook.com/kymmefraserart 

I was born in Edinburgh, studied in Aberdeen and worked in Glasgow before returning to Aberdeen in the early 1990’s to work and raise a family. My early love of art and painting was rekindled here and after many courses, workshops and exhibitions, I have now given up full-time employment in order to concentrate on an art career.

I paint the Scottish land and seascapes in a modern, semi-abstract style in acrylic and acrylic inks. Paint is layered using brush and palette knife to create depth, interest and a sense of the beautiful coasts and countryside both here in the North East and more widely across Scotland.

I exhibit and sell work at galleries in the North East of Scotland including Larks Gallery, Ballater and Country Frames Gallery, Insch. I participate each year in the North East Open Studios event, either from my own home studio or in other various venues in Aberdeen. I am the Vice President of the Stonehaven Art Group and have exhibited at the annual exhibition in Stonehaven for a number of years, winning various awards. I am also a member of the Aberdeen Artists Society and participant in the Pittenweem Arts Festival.

Gerard Stott

by Gerard Stott

Gerard Stott:   The Artist at Garage 10.

WEBSITE:       https://garage10.work

A Short Film by the Granite Town Film Project, about me; The Artist at Garage 10:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eiVvIc-c6k

As the Artist at Garage 10, I paint both still life and explored subjects.  My compositions are free to evolve during execution and so can take weeks to materialise to a point at which I’m ready to start painting, and they generally continue to evolve over the weeks that it takes me to complete the brush work.

Re-sketching my composed genre subjects over and over in pencil, allows my initial ideas to evolve, and some priorities to change, sometimes beyond all recognition of their origin. Through this process, I discover what it is that I want to paint. I believe that allowing this spontaneity reveals interesting insights into both myself, and what I thought I was painting.  The discovery process reinforces my enjoyment of making a painting. I think this also helps me strive towards better work.

Where there is narrative in my pictures, it’s intended to be obvious. I don’t want to have to explain my paintings, and in a sense, I think that explaining them would be undermining the objective of creating them, so at the end of the day my paintings typically will have to speak for themselves.

I have a need to paint, which I really value, but I’m also grateful that I have enough talent to produce paintings that I feel are valid, and so far it seems that every painting has provided a new learning experience.

Cath Roberts

by Catherine Roberts

Hello! I work quite intuitively with a painters eye, balance and form with colour and line are key in the process. When there is effortless enjoyment in the making then the stop knows when to happen. Generally working with the palette knife and heavy body acrylics relating to my surroundings – often landscape, keeping the eye connected and lively feeds into the creativity and lightness of approach.

Shelagh Brown

by Shelagh Brown

I am a multi-media artist based in Aberdeen, Scotland. I am a graduate of Grays School of Art (BA Contemporary Art Practice 2016) and I have exhibited work in my home city of Aberdeen, around the North East of Scotland, in Edinburgh, and in Vienna. My practice combines painting, hand-painted archival collage papers, printmaking and monoprint techniques, and drawing materials. I work in layers and  the mainly abstract images and meanings that emerge are also autobiographical, bringing forward deeper meanings and emotions from my life and psyche.

https://www.youtube.com/@shelaghbrown4433

https://www.instagram.com/shelaghbrownartist/

Nicole Luchita

by Nicole Luchita

My work focuses on printmaking, specifically etching and drypoint, as a physical connector between concept, artist, and viewer.

Instagram: @nicole.luchita

Alicja Rodzik

by Alicja Rodzik

https://lyricalpassage.com/

https://www.instagram.com/alicjarodzik/

Fine Art artist. Painter, sculptor, photographer, illustrator. Graduated from Gray’s School of Art in 2020 with a First Class BA(Hons) in Painting. RSA New Contemporaries and SSA New Graduate Award.

I am a storyteller. My work explores the landscapes of childhood and recollection, uncovering the secrets woven into them and examining the delicate balance between trauma and wishful thinking. I am drawn to the allure of ambiguity and the richness of multiple interpretations. Through my practice, I integrate objects and drawing elements into paintings, cyanotypes, and assemblages, constructing layered narratives. Each overlapping image reflects the intricate and shifting memory nature which continuously evolves and drifts across dimensions.

BRIONY JENKINS

by Briony Jenkins

Home

Working in oils, my most recent paintings explore the reduced light and altered colour within deep shadows within the landscape. My particular interest is in the expanse of height and sense of space created by uninterrupted wide skies, an ongoing  preoccupation. I work in the semi-rural environments of the Aberdeenshire landscape in which I live.

Ann Bowes

by Ann Bowes

My art is rooted in Scottish history, culture and folk memory. A strong Highland background combined with many years living in the NE has influenced my work. The sea continues to be a powerful source of inspiration. The Scottish diaspora has strengthened worldwide connections with a sense of identity. Music and language have travelled back & fore for generations gaining ever richer resonance. I am drawn to the themes of navigation, emigration, whaling & fishing . I admire the work of Will Mclean and Steve Dilworth in particular.

I use a variety of techniques and media. Objects are fashioned, re-cycled, re-purposed to demonstrate a narrative. Found objects including wood, bone & shell are incorporated . Shapes are fashioned using wood, plaster , clay and paper-mache. Textiles are combined with decorative items in a number of pieces. Some are whimsical . Much of my illustrative work reflects similar interests & includes archaeological references with emphasis on local subjects informed by many years of museum work. My work is mainly sold privately. I was fortunate to have an example purchased by Aberdeen Art Gallery thanks to an exhibition organised through AAS.

Morag A Stevenson

by Morag A Stevenson

http://moragstevenson.com/

https://www.instagram.com/moragstevensonartist/

Born in Aberdeen, I trained at Edinburgh College of Art and was in art education for almost 40 years before painting from my studio in Linlithgow. As a keen gardener, plants feature in most of my paintings which feature domestic interiors with everyday objects which I have collected over the years .Bold, contrasting colour and pattern also feature but there is an element of imagination too as paintings take on a life of their own through the painting process.I also incorporate landscape views in many of my paintings. I have exhibited extensively in many galleries around Scotland as well as being a member of the Society of Women Artists in London (receiving an award in 2021), the Paisley Art Institute (receiving an award in 2023) the RSW and the Aberdeen Artists Society.

Kinga Elliott

by Kinga Elliott

https://www.kingaelliott.com

I am drawn to the abstract. I am captivated by complex interconnected shapes, be it in unusual architecture, in tiny seed pods or in mathematical geometry. I am intrigued by complexity, underlying order and emerging connections within a structure. I hope to convey to the viewer the inherent visual beauty of these systems.

I am a painter with a background in science. I make mixed media artworks on paper or board, and I also create colour changing images in back-lit frames by using polariser sheets.

I have a long-held fascination with light, with its manifold representations and appearances in religions, in optics and in theoretical physics. For my artworks, I found a very apt process in the making of cyanotypes, where light plays an active role in the creation of the image.

The cyanotypes serve as starting points that I build on, using acrylic paint, ink, various dry mediums and occasionally resin. I find this technique very fluid and adaptable. It enables me to create abstract, lyrical, poetical works, or straight-lined logical structures as well as representational, recognisable images.

I live and work from my studio in Aberdeenshire. I graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2020, and currently I am the Painting Graduate in Residence there, combining studio practice with assisting at teaching. Originally from Hungary, I emigrated to Scotland in the 1990s.

My works have received numerous awards and have been exhibited at many group and solo shows, including at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

I worked on a collaborative project as a supporting painter at the British Art Show 9 (2021) and was member of Hospitalfield’s Scotland + Venice team at the Venice Biennale in 2015. Recent residencies include the RSA John Kinross Scholarship to Florence and – closer to home, – at  the rural treasure trove of the Glenesk Folk Museum.

Christine Leith

by Christine Leith

Christine’s biography

Peter Davis RSW

by Peter Davis

https://www.peterdavisshetland.com/

Born in the North-East of England in 1953, I didn’t follow the usual path through art school. I chose instead an Art & Design course at Northumberland College of Education and after that taught in Cumbria. In 1981 I moved to Orkney where I set up my own studio and gallery in Birsay and did a number of jobs teaching art to children and adults. During the next 10 years I developed my work and began to exhibit in a variety of venues both in Orkney and around other parts of Britain. In 1991 I moved to Shetland and soon took up an art teaching appointment. I have had numerous exhibitions both in this country and abroad and taken part in an artists’ exchange with the Netherlands and took courses on printmaking and sculpture. Between 2006 and 2008 I worked with Voluntary Service Overseas as a teacher trainer in West Africa. Upon my return to the UK I resumed teaching art part-time and painting.

In 2013 I retired from teaching and I now devote my time to painting. I was a founder member of Veer North, the Shetland artist’s group, and since 1994 have been an occasional arts reviewer and critic for The Shetland Times. In 2014 and 2016 I received Visual Arts Awards from Shetland Arts/Creative Scotland to develop my interest in handmade paint and work towards an exhibition based on visits to Iceland. ‘Elemental’ was shown at the Bonhoga Gallery in July – September 2016. I was awarded The Donnie Ross Prize for Innovation in Watercolour at Aberdeen Artists Society exhibtions in 2020 and 2021. In 2023 I was awarded the John Busby Award at the 142nd RSW Open. I was elected to the RSW in September 2023.

​I am currently represented by a number of Scottish galleries including Kilmorack Gallery in Inverness-shire, the Birch Tree Gallery in Dundas Street, Edinburgh and Gallery Heinzel in Aberdeen.

JAMES SINCLAIR

by James Sinclair

Ex Grays School of Art. Now painting and sculpting.

Violetta Pretorius Beadwork

by Violetta Pretorius

https://www.violetta-pretorius.com/

Using a needle and beading thread and one tiny glass bead at a time, this is my contemporary take on the age-old tradition of off-the-loom bead-weaving. I’m fascinated with how supple the beaded fabric is  when woven with round seed beads, but also how, when using tubular beads, you can create 3-dimensional and self-supporting structures, which I form into wearable art jewellery and accessories.

I love designing in black and white with a splash of red but I have begun exploring other colour combinations.

Anita Inverarity

by Anita Inverarity

https://anitainverarity.com

Anita Inverarity is a Scottish artist born in Aberdeen and currently living in rural Banffshire. Working in traditional pen mediums Anita is interested in intricate detail and pattern with art nouveau twists and folk art aesthetics.
Her art language is often steeped in mythology and ancient lore with underpinning stories of transformation.
Anita exhibits her work both locally and internationally.
Commercial works and collaborations have included everything from Album Covers to a Catwalk Collection with celebrated Australian fashion duo Zimmermann.
Recent projects have focused on inspirational writing and art decks with leading publishers US Games Ltd, Animal Dreaming and Blue Angel.

Rebecca Patterson

by Rebecca Patterson

rebeccapattersonartist.com

After graduating from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2009 with an Honours in Painting and again in 2010 with a Masters of Fine Art, I have been fortunate to have had over a decade to develop my practice. My work is a frenzy of material and processes, a direct representation of my mind and how I create. Heavily inspired by the natural landscape of the North East of Scotland my work borders into the abstract and explores fleeting moments and feelings. Growing up on the Moray coast I have a subconscious pull towards the land and sea as well as the flora of the area, tied up in memories of walks and times exploring. Living in a city now has me dreaming of wilderness, making me appreciate any time I can venture out and collect moments of raw natural energy and beauty. This all filters through into my practice, a desire to create and to remember those feelings and experiences, they are completely symbiotic. I believe there is a real familiarity in my work, viewers too can feel the essence and the intimacy even if they have never been acquainted with this part of the World. I work organically and rhythmically in layers of mixed media. Pieces tell me what they want to be rather than me coming at them with preconceived ideas and plans, they materialise out of the ether and guide me to completion.

Bill Marr

by Bill Marr

www.billmarr.co.uk

Living in the North East of Scotland its Landscapes and Seascapes have been my inspiration for over 50 years.

Art has been my life’s work.

Moving from representational work to more abstract paintings I am currently working on my ‘Instinct’ series.