Oystercatchers, Blackwaterfoot Beach

Scottish artist Nancy Turnbull spent many years working in the field of science before embracing her passion for painting and establishing herself as one of Scotland’s prominent landscape artists. She has won a variety of awards including the David Cargill Prize in 2010, at the Royal Glasgow Institute. After many years of living in Worcestershire Nancy has returned to Stirlingshire, where she grew up.

Nancy’s inspiration comes from her observations of nature; the changing seasons, soft greens, lilac clouds, lichen on shore rock and reflections on the shoreline. She has always been fascinated by wild flowers, bluebells, cow parsley, red campion and wild iris, all of which often feature in her work. Nancy searches out inspiration wherever she is, and she appreciates the way in which familiar scenes change with different light conditions and the rotation of the seasons. She spends a lot of time on Arran, tramping well known paths and occasionally discovering new viewpoints. She also enjoys painting on Islay and the West Coast. Fife, with its big skies, also provides painting inspiration.

For Nancy there must always be a reason for choosing a particular subject; something that sparks the imagination, something that only an artist’s eye would observe. The challenge is then to capture that feeling with marks on a canvas, subtle colour combinations and the texture of paint. Nancy works in oils quickly and instinctively using knives, brushes and rags. This allows her to achieve a freshness and impression rather than an exact representation.