Claire Beattie - As Far As I Can See Landscape paintings inspired by colour, light and distant horizons

Berwickshire-based artist Claire Beattie has produced an exhibition of beautiful, vibrantly-coloured paintings inspired by the colour, light and distant horizons of the Scottish Borders.

The works usually feature a solitary motif as a focus. This can often be a tree or group of trees, a cloud, a farm building, hay bales or the outline of the hills against the sky. She creates the images by building a myriad of layers of colour and marks until these landscape elements finally ‘settle’ into place and glow and resonate, like a memory or a view that comes briefly into focus.

Claire has recently completed 100 Day painting projects inspired by the Berwickshire countryside, recording the same view daily on a small scale, and experimenting with different surfaces. The exhibition includes paintings which have emerged from this process, with colour and light at their centre.

Claire says: ‘I’m really looking forward to exhibiting in the Waterfall Gallery at Hawick Museum which is an absolute gem of a place in the Scottish Borders. Exhibiting under the same roof as the Sir William Gillies exhibition touring from the Royal Scottish Academy makes it extra special as I have admired his beautiful drawings and Borders landscape studies since my student days at Edinburgh College of Art’