“Welcome to our Highland studio and thank you for dropping by to view our Limited-Edition Print, published from my Masterworks oil painting, ‘Brightwater’.

When we first visited the Northern Highlands in our early twenties, Eileen and I used to wistfully look around us and quietly wonder what it would be like to live up here; never for one moment expecting that one day we would manage it. Yet here we are, all thanks to the technological innovation of the internet, which allows us to communicate with folk at a distance. However, even more astonishing, is the fact that at the top of our ‘wish list’ for the ideal place to move to someday, was “… somewhere close to water” and here we live on the East coast, enjoying a panoramic vista of a view that takes in a mass of sea.

SUBJECT - Water plays a very important part in my life as an artist, it figures large in my work and nothing makes me happier than to work on a composition that features water.

I am entranced by how water behaves, its myriad qualities and characteristics; all influenced by the elements of nature.

Just look at how the ripples on the surface of the water in this painting of Scourie harbour (on the West coast), catch the light, creating an array of different patterns. See how the bright blue of the summer’s afternoon sun is reflected on the surface, in the shadows of the ripples and penetrates through, influencing the colour of the seaweed beneath.

COMPOSITION - Quite apart from the usual considerations when capturing subjects underwater, such as the fact that everything is foreshortened; the sun was behind me on this occasion. As a result, volume tends to be flattened into blocks of pure colour. Whilst this viewpoint made depth of space more difficult to portray, it was critical if I was to exploit the sun dappling on the sand beneath the waters rippling surface and pick out the shoal of tiny fish that glided through this sea garden of colourful seaweed – the whole purpose of this painting.

As each second passed the surface of the sea changed with every slight breeze that touched it. I therefore composed the scene with a surface pattern of wavelets which radiate towards us, keeping the viewers eye within the confines of the painting.

For some while now I had been yearning to do a series of paintings of rock-pools and sea-pools and this was to be the first of a new collection.

METHOD - these Masterworks oil paintings are created using my unique method, a method based on traditional techniques, which are progressively worked through in layers from dark-to-light; a process that cannot be hurried, nor short-cuts taken. First, the underlying thinned colours of the underpainting, next the impasto stage, with layers-upon-layers of glazes and tints extensively used to enrich and subtly enliven the oil painting – it is through these techniques where the ‘art’ of oil painting comes into its own.

As always, we thank you for reading and watching, with best wishes from Eileen and myself,”

Paul Taggart

Artist : Author : Presenter : Producer