Scilly

I first visited the Islands in 1984, camping on each of the islands in turn, each one leaving their own impression and magic.
Scilly is always there sitting on the horizon like a group of jewels laced with romanticism and memory. Sometimes a few smudges swallowed in murky storms other times exotic shapes bathed in the brilliant atlantic light.
In Conjunction with Gallery Tresco in have made various excursions to the ‘Fortunate Isles’ to paint and soak up the special atmosphere of the place.
A place that sits on the edge of the great wilderness that is The Atlantic Ocean, a place that draws my eye into that vast firmament.Again as in Scotland I find myself returning to familliar places over time, seeing how my own memory of a place can change over time and distance. Being seperated from the subject acts as a kind of delay mechanism.
Scilly belies its nature, seen as pretty and placid, if you stop and listen, amongst the tranquility you can hear and sense the roar of the ocean that surrounds the islands.
I seem to be drawn to painting amongst islands, whether they are Scilly, The Outer Hebrides and Western Highlands of Scotland, Nantucket Island in the States, Venice and recently new found muse Sicily, Italy.
Islands seem the closest place one can get to being in a garden and being amongst the waves - and no more so than on Scilly.