Chris Bushe RSW

The Open Eye Gallery is committed to showcasing and supporting as many of our Gallery artists annually as possible. This takes numerous forms, whether it be our annual Festive 'On...

'This new series of recent paintings continues an abiding fascination and passion I have for the islands of the Hebrides and especially of Islay, Mull and Iona. I first visited...

"This new group of paintings are all from a number of painting trips to the islands of Mull, Iona and Islay over the past two years.

I love visiting and painting these islands at the best of times, but like all of us having endured various levels of lockdown during the pandemic it felt even more joyful to be back on those beautiful Hebridean beaches when we were eventually allowed to travel again. The act of painting these remarkable landscapes is for me a life-enhancing experience and I would hope that in some small way the paintings can elicit a similar response in the viewer.

In particular the exhibition is about those fleeting moments when sun, cloud, wind and weather combine to light up these very special islands lending them a sublimeness that seems otherworldly, and I have tried to capture in this body of work these transient "soul-stirring" moments."