About — Donna Louise Irvine | Scottish Landscape Artist

Man, it takes a long time to sound like yourself - MILES DAVIS

**Me, myself** *and* hi

The photo on the left was taken 24 years ago when I first went to art school.
Here are a three things I would tell her now…

***‘Creativity takes courage’***
***Henri Matisse***
**Don’t waste your time worrying about being ‘good enough’ to be an artist.**
You are not a fraud, you are a beginner. It’s not about being good enough, but more about if you want it enough, are passionate enough to become an artist. And certainly no one can ever accuse you of lacking that!
There is no shame in becoming and becoming takes time. Have courage. Your style will come. It’s there already.
Relax, and listen, and take it in, and learn. Calling yourself an artist will be something you will take years to do, but when you do, you will feel you have earned it. Keep working.

Whistle while you work. Keep working with joy.

Don’t believe the many films, books, poems and lyrics that reinforce the archetype of the impoverished, mad, lonely artist suffering miserably in the name of their art. You will discover years and years from now that you make your best work when you come to your studio with joy, anticipation, and a sense of quiet playfulness and curiosity. Accept that all those qualities require a tremendous amount of energy. After a good day out in the studio you should feel as bone tired and happy as you do on after a good day out on a hike. Pushing through and grit is sometimes needed but, for the most part, you will find you need to be well rested, well read, well fed and well in your body and mind to work. Respect that and then you are set up to conjure those moments of grace and flow necessary to make a painting that you are proud to have made.

‘What the caterpillar perceives as the end, to the butterfly is just the beginning.’

Follow your instincts, trust them without reference to anyone else.

Accept that to make progress you need to keep in motion and to keep changing. And like the poor caterpillar you will have to go through a process where you may be a pulpy goo for a bit before anything beautiful can begin to happen. You have to trust the dark of your cocoon.

There will be many beginnings and transformations. You will never feel you have got it, you’ve cracked it, you understand it, you are it. I only hope for a feeling of forward motion in my art, an endless cycle of caterpillar to butterfly and back to the caterpillar again. Instinct and trust and change and always, always be prepared to begin again.

SEE THE GALLERY

SEE THE CLEARING WITH THE HIDDEN GALLERY

ME, MY ART AND WHY

the hills are alive

Writers talk about their settings as being characters in their own right. Can that be true of the landscapes that I draw and am drawn to?

I think so.

I see my landscapes functioning in the same way as a good portrait. A strong portrait isn’t simply a visual representation. It reveals something about the essence of the person and makes the viewer care about who that person is. I want the landscapes I paint to emotionally engage the viewer in the same way.

never grow up…always down

When I was a child I would imagine that the hills and rocks were alive with personalities and faces. I would even speak to them and act out their replies. But does an artist really ever grow up? I still walk every day with the landscape around my home treating her as if she is a familiar friend. I know all her contours, I notice her mood and what she wears. I can often be found reminiscing, telling her my hopes and problems, and listening for answers.

space to spread my mind out in

I agree with Virginia. Walking is where it starts. Here I find space for my ideas, inspiration for new work, and stumble on minor epiphanies. I am particularly interested in how I experience a walk as two things at once: a push-pull relationship. In one breath, being there and appreciating the beauty of the landscape. In the next, blind to my surroundings and alone with my thoughts, memories, and emotions.

My creative aim is to find a way to show that relationship, using bold combinations of colour, mark-making and collaging fragments of text. I seek to explore how these can capture both the personality of the landscape keeping me in the moment, yet also capture how that all fades away when my thoughts intrude and I retreat inside to listen to them.

the end is the beginning of an even longer story

Yes, Zadie, it is. This is an ongoing battle, a love affair, an obsession with landscape. This is sketchbooks, canvases, ink spills, palette knife wins and lots and lots of wailing. How do I make it look like that? How?

And why?

Because she is everywhere, and, like all complex characters, she is mercurial. She doesn’t look the same on any given day, and isn’t always pleasant to be around. But she is always fascinating. Always beautiful. And so I will continue to marvel at her. I will photograph, study, spend far too much time thinking about her, forever trying to capture her portrait.

QUOTE CREDITS:

The hills are alive with the sound of music, with songs they have sung for a thousand years. - Oscar Hammerstein
Never grow up … always down. - George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
I am extremely happy walking on the downs…I like to have space to spread my mind out in. -Virginia Woolf
The end is simply the beginning of an even longer story. - Zadie Smith