Ian and painting........

Ian has lived in Wester Ross since September 1989 when he and his wife moved from The English Lake District.

Initially Ian trained at Durham University in the Department of Architecture and practiced until 1986 as an Architect. He always had a strong urge to paint. Maybe this can be said of many architects whose creative instinct becomes bogged down in minutiae like the hinges on classroom doors! So he attended courses at the local College of Art at Middlesborough.

Ian Nelson - the reluctant artist

It wasn't, however, until he moved to the Lake District, after getting married again and gave up architecture that he finally had time to put paint on paper. Ian sometimes uses ink and gouache in his paintings too, in order to achieve some of the strong colours and effects he desires.

As soon as he allowed his pictures to go on sale in the Lake District they sold. But Ian knew he wanted to paint the wonderfully dramatic landscapes that the scenery in Scotland offered rather than the very pretty and popular Lakeland views that there were already extensively covered by many well known Lakeland Artists...

One of the reasons therefore for moving to Wester Ross was to give Ian the opportunity to depict these landscapes. He soon found that his style worked well with the tremendous variety of weather conditions that prevail here! His architectural background allows his depiction of traditional crofthouses in the landscape to be perfectly captured. Sadly the locals prefer modern housing and the traditional narrow crofthouse design does not extend very sympathetically nor is it too practical for modern day living. The newer houses do not have the same emotive effect on the viewer and certainly are not therefore often featured in Ian's watercolours as a result.

Sea View overlooking Little Loch
Broom

From arriving here in September 1989, not too sure of quite what we would do, our lives are now organised into three separate tranches. For the first three or four months Ian was painting in anticipation of the tourist season which gets going rather slowly from the beginning of April. Once under way he finds time is taken up servicing his print outlets in the area, as he signs, mounts and packages each one himself. They are to be found at Inverewe Gardens, Carron Restaurant, Creative Designs (Aida's new shop), The Frame Shop in Inverness and Made in Scotland in Beauly. Although Aida and Carron Pottery and Gallery (adjacent to the Restaurant) sell his originals, by June there are rarely many left. He then struggles to produce more original paintings before the season comes to a close at the end of October. Nothing comes easy!