SCOTLAND

COLLECTION

The reference photos are from our road trip day on the North East 250, but what is really inspiring the paintings is our human history of queer love. Because queer people have always existed!

Personally, I have many generations back of family being from Scotland, as many other Canadians do. With this work I’ve been exploring what my queer ancestors lives may have been like. Did they share feelings that many of us have of “being in the closet”? Did they experience budding feelings of romance? Abandonment and shame? Hopes and dreams? Real and true love?

Historians will call them friends, but how often is the truth really queer love?

This collection has started with over 60 mini watercolour studies of different photos I want to paint.

I am painting the collection in several parts, centred around specific locations, and there are 2 themes (flower studies and driving photos) that do fit within the locations but sort of have a different feel and intention for me.

The general location themes include: Edinburgh, Cairngorm National Park, North East Castles, Glencoe, and Isle of Skye.

GARDENSTOWN

This first week I’ve been painting some photos I took in Gardenstown on the north east shore roadtrip day we had. The town lived up to its name with beautiful flowers and yards everywhere.

I started with this to work on my flowers for this collection, and I do think some of these flowers will end up in the composition of some larger pieces where I would like flowers to be but they aren’t. It also gave me a chance to play with a lot of different greens and painting some buildings.

Available Gardenstown Paintings

A vibrant oil painting of a garden with blooming pink, red, yellow, and purple flowers, a white picket fence, and a stone pathway.

Oil on Canvas
16” x 12” • Sold

Let Your Flowers Grow

Painting of a white house with a flower garden in front, featuring pink, purple, and yellow flowers, with textured brushstrokes and an impressionistic style.

Gardenstown Study #1
Oil on wood panel
7” x 5” • Sold

Colorful impressionist painting of a garden scene with a blue shed, surrounded by lush green plants and flowers, framed in wood.

Gardenstown Study #2
Oil on wood panel
7” x 5” • Sold

A colorful landscape painting of houses with a mountain in the background, surrounded by greenery and flowers.

Gardenstown Study #4
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Available

A colorful painting of a garden pathway with plants and flowers on the left and a white wall with hanging objects on the right.

Gardenstown Study #3
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

Painted landscape of a beach with green hills, a blue sky, and ocean waves, framed on a white wall.

Gardenstown Shore
Oil on Canvas
8” x 10” • Available

Painting of a garden with various colorful flowers including pink, purple, red, and white, with greenery in the background.

Flower Garden Study
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

Coasts + Castles

The last several weeks of April I have been painting studies for the Coasts and Castles part of my collection. From the coastal hills of Portknockie, to Bow Fiddle Rock, to the flowers of Slains Castle, this was all one AMAZING and inspirational day.

Available COASTS + CASTLES Paintings

Oil painting depicts a landscape with green fields, a narrow dirt path, a cow lying in the grass, and large white rock formations under a blue sky.

Oil on Canvas • 16” x 12” • Sold

Guardian of the castle

An oil painting of a coastal landscape with green hills, rocky cliffs, and the ocean in the background under a blue sky.

Cliffs of Portknockie
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

Oil painting of a coastal scene with pink flowers in the foreground, rocky cliffs, and the ocean under a cloudy sky, framed in a dark green wooden frame.

Banffshire Coast
Oil on wood panel
5” x 7” • Sold

Painting of a castle on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean with a grassy foreground.

Dunnotar Castle Study
Oil on Canvas
8” x 10” • Sold

An impressionist painting of a landscape with pink flowers in the foreground, green hills, a rocky cliff with a bird, and a blue sky with clouds.

See Bird Sea Bird
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

An impressionist-style landscape painting of a green hillside with yellow flowers, a rocky coastline, and the ocean in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

Buckie Coast
Oil on Canvas
8” x 10” • Available

Oil painting of a coastal landscape with green hills, rocky cliffs, and a blue ocean under a partly cloudy sky, framed in wood.

Bow Fiddle Rock Study #1
Oil on Canvas
8” x 10” • Sold

Impressionist landscape painting of rugged coastal mountains with ocean in the background, green hills with pink and yellow flowers in foreground, and blue sky with wispy clouds.

Hilly Port
Oil on Canvas
16” x 14” • Available

Painting of a coastal landscape with green grass, rocky cliffs, and blue ocean water under a cloudy sky.

Painting of a hill with a winding path, colorful flowers, and a large rocky outcrop or cliff in the background under a blue sky.

Portknockie Coast
Oil on Canvas
12” x 12” • Available

Castle Roy
Oil on wood panel
7” x 5” • Sold

Painting of a coastal landscape with green hillside, pink and white flowers, rocky cliffs, and a blue ocean under a cloudy sky

Bow Fiddle Rock Study #2
Oil on wood panel
7” x 5” • Sold

Painting of a field with pink and white flowers, green grass, trees, and a blue sky in a wooden frame.

Flowers of Castle Roy
Oil on Wood Panel
7” x 5” • Sold

Painting of a coastal landscape with green grassy hills, colorful wildflowers, rocky cliffs, and the sea under a cloudy sky.

seaside Tryst

Oil on Canvas
24” x 20” • Sold

A colorful landscape painting of a coastal scene, featuring green hills with pink and yellow flowers, large rocks, and rugged cliffs overlooking the ocean with waves, under a partly cloudy sky.

RECKLESS ABANDON

Oil on Canvas • 30” x 40” • Available

A painting of a castle on a green hillside overlooking the ocean, with pink flowers in the foreground and a partly cloudy sky.

Immortal queen

Oil on Canvas • 20” x 24” • Sold

Painting of an ancient stone castle on a grassy hill, with purple and white flowers in the foreground, under a partly cloudy blue sky.

Slains Castle Study
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

Painting of a castle on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean with a partly cloudy sky in the background.

Dùn Fhoithear

Oil on Canvas • 24” x 30” • Available

Impressionist painting of a castle atop a hill with colorful purple and pink flowers and green landscape, under a swirling purple and pink sky.

Avalonia

Oil painting of a coastal landscape featuring grassy cliffs, rocky formations, and the ocean with cloudy sky.

Oil on Wood Panel • 48” x 36” • Available

Coastline Rocks Study
Oil on Canvas
8” x 10” • Available

Colorful painting of the Cliffs of Moher with green grass, rocky cliffs, and the Atlantic Ocean in the background, framed in wood.

Dunnotar Castle Study #2
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Sold

Painting of green rolling hills, with bright yellow trees, a blue sky with some clouds, and a winding path or river.

Valley at Dunnotar
Oil on Canvas
10” x 8” • Available

What’s coming next?

Edinburgh in spring can be expected with lots of blooms and (while we were there) sunny skies. Edinburgh castle, Letih, and Ross Fountain are all on my list.
We camped and hiked in Cairngorms National Park for a couple days and I’ve got some paintings to come that are less spectacular views and more romanticizing the everyday.
Photo references that are taken out the car window always end up as some of my favourite paintings and this trip has so many that I decided it needed to be it’s own little series.
Big paintings that showcase the expansive valleys and towering hills can be expected from this part of the series.
Magical greens and fairy pools can be expected from this part of the collection.
This is mainly iconic scenes on Isle of Skye but a few places along the way too that are just epic, well known sites that will make for a spectacular ending to this collection.