Finding Frances Macdonald

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Following my recent travels to Scotland, I came across the work of an artist whose paintings immediately resonated with me: Frances Macdonald. There is something deeply rooted in place within her work — a sense that the landscape is not simply being observed, but experienced and remembered through colour, atmosphere and form.

I was particularly drawn to her beautiful use of colour. There is a wonderful energy in the way coastal colours sit alongside one another — bright blues, sea greens, muted yellows, flashes of pink and purple, earthy browns and strong greys. In some of her paintings, the landscape seems almost to divide itself naturally into horizontal bands, like layers of coastline, sea, sky and land. Yet these are not rigid divisions; they appear to merge, overlap and shift, creating a sense of depth and movement.

This way of seeing the landscape has made me think about my own work. I have recently been experimenting with larger earthenware vessels, building up horizontal bands of coastal colour across their surfaces. Into these layers I am introducing different forms of mark making and carving, allowing the surface to become a record of place — a combination of colour, texture, gesture and memory.