Jack Findlay, Artist

A native and life-long resident of Peterhead, Jack turned to painting in both oils and watercolours some 9 years ago.   He is self-taught and his philosophy is that his paintings should capture an emotional response to a place or a subject rather than be a literal representation of what the eye actually sees. For this reason his chosen title for this year's
Rotary Art Event is "Painting from the Heart".

Jack believes his narrative or interpretation can be either real or imagined, or a mix of the two. The use of pure colour is his response to the mood and atmosphere of the chosen subject and he favours 'big skies' or 'big seas' - or both. Following the tradition of Scottish painters, colour and colour harmony are always important.

Although Jack likes to 'keep his hand in' with watercolours (see his picture 'Sunburst' in the "Flowers" page)  he paints mostly in oils, and it is in that medium that he will work for this Art Event. He usually paints on a base of 6mm MDF which he has first prepared with 2 coats of ordinary 'DIY' white acrylic primer, followed by a coloured 'imprimatura' layer (the same paint mixed with the chosen base colour and some powdered Polyfilla to the consistency of whipped cream) in which brush marks are deliberately left in order to provide texture to the painting.

A selction of Jack's work can be viewed here under the broad terms

Local Scenes

Flowers

and

Seascapes