TRIPTYCH

2 August - 30 August 2025

NICOLE STEVENSON

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have been visiting the Outer Hebrides for many years to paint outside in these wild and remote islands. Recently I have been inspired by a tiny village on Lewis. Having visited and painted there for several trips, I have created a collection of paintings that express my absolute joy and fascination with its beauty, history and other-worldly quality.

The large watercolour paintings have been painted on location in Lewis. Finding as sheltered a spot as possible, I still had to use rope and tent pegs to tie down my easel and board as the wind was relentless. So exhilarating to be out in the open with large sheets of paper and plenty of art materials, free to pour on paint and make expressive marks and to be fully immersed in the landscape. People came and talked to me while I worked and told me stories of who had lived in which croft and what had happened to the fishermen and herring lassies. These tales were infused into my paintings and were starting points for further research when I got home and started to work in my studio, just outside Glasgow.

My studio paintings have been inspired by the paintings I did on location, the people I met and the memories of the feelings I had in Lewis. I collected plants and grasses, from Lewis, and used these to print and make collage papers. I used asemic writing to evoke the idea of legends and stories passed on through an aural tradition. And motifs of black and white houses to suggest the layering of homes, one on top of the other, the generations of black houses being transformed into the white rendered cottages that now scatter the hillsides. On some early mornings the sea mist (or haar) shrouded the landscape in gauze, adding to the enchanting quality, and this inspired the more muted tones, the whites and grays in my paintings.

I graduated from Edinburgh Collage of Art in 1987 and have a PGCE in further education. I have been a full time professional artist since then, painting, exhibiting and teaching art for over 30 years.

I regularly exhibit in many of the Scottish Galleries and in the Annual Open Exhibitions in Scotland.