Artist Martin Oates

Martin Oates' landscapes capture a wild and elemental Scotland, a drama of changing sky and sea. The quick, loose brushwork, the deceptively simple palette, the flowing, painterly style transport us effortlessly to major cities around the world. Martin was born in 1952 in Glasgow and attended classes at the city's Art School as a child. By the age of sixteen, he had been accepted as a student by two Colleges of Art, but was unable to enroll due to family circumstances. Largely self-taught, Martin's style is bold and experimental. His use of deep, pigmented jewel-like flashes of colour create evocative moments of the dramatic Scottish landscapes he depicts. They are unmistakeably influenced by the Scottish artistic tradition of strong colour. In his watercolours, it is Martin's effortless balancing of both contrasting and harmonizing colours in a single artwork that form his distinctive works.