Jan Fisher
Born in Coventry, Jan studied Fine Art at Coventry College of Art at Durham University. She taught in the south including a part time lectureship at the then West of England College of Art, Bristol. Jan set up her own business doing varied commissions. Work included murals in churches, pubs and schools and a contract for Courage Breweries for pictorial pub signs while continuing to paint for private collectors. Jan moved to Scotland in 1973 and began working seriously as a painter, highly motivated by the Scottish landscape. Jan moved around Scotland, with her husband John, also a painter, choosing to live in some fairly remote places, including Wester Ross, Braemar, Isle of Mull and by the Crinan Canal. She absorbs the atmosphere and beauty of each place in a unique style, using soft and delicate tones, which manage to depict the dramatic landscape of Scotland. From 2000 until the Summer of 2021 they ran a very popular gallery in Pittenweem. The gallery has retired as they moved to nearby Cupar. Original painting and prints are still shown year round at the Weem Gallery opposite to their former gallery in the High Street.
Jessica Oliver
I grew up in the North East of England - where I completed my Foundation Course and BA Hons in History of Art. Life then took me to London until 1995 when I relocated to Edinburgh. In 2012, having taken time out to raise my family, I joined Leith School of Art to revisit and develop my artistic practice, first as a part-time student and then as a student on the specialised Landscape Course. As a landscape artist my work is rooted in the investigation of an environment, with a focus on my reminiscence of place and space. I immerse myself in its character through initial sketchbook observations, then develop these influences into a series of studio based discoveries.
Jem Bowden
I’m a watercolour landscape painter and tutor, based in Crail, in the ‘East Neuk’ of Fife, Scotland My painting life consists of two mutually beneficial roles, as both a watercolour painter, and a teacher of watercolour painting. As a landscape painter knows, ‘background’ often doesn’t need a lot of detail. I’ll try not to say too much! Plein air painting keeps me feeling present and connected to the world. Whenever I’m out in the landscape I’m also thinking about how to ‘capture’ and share that experience. The great watercolourists have shown that this medium is all we should need. In theory it can be simple, but watercolour has its own ideas…
Robert Pereira Hind
Robert Pereira Hind’s mixed media series ‘Out of Eden’ is minimal and striking, evoking the gold leaf technique reminiscent of Gustave Klimt (Woman in Gold), and the 18th Century botanic flower renditions not painted but via a photographic technique cross pollinating art interpretations. These unique artworks are perfect in any setting being luxurious and beautifully decorative. They’re made by using acrylic paint & organic photographic pigment layered onto gilded wooden backgrounds coated with shellac and art glazes.
Gwen Adair
A graduate of Glasgow School of Art in 1989, my recent work has been split between landscape painting, birds and portraiture, with some figurative painting when I can. I love portraiture, and I am fascinated by the way the disposition of figures can create a story in the mind of the viewer, which possibly comes from my training as an illustrator. The arrangement of several figures creates challenges in how to balance positive and negative shapes and the spaces between them. Images have sometimes been chosen to appeal to memories we share from childhood, or to explore stereotypes and contradictions. I am drawn to performers and their enigmatic lifestyles, sinister and exciting, drawing you into their world like the faeries in ancient folk-lore.
John Davie
John was born in Stirling and educated at Alloa Academy. John has always earned his living with a pencil in his hand, having pursued an architectural career, and now works in private practice, specialising in housing design and the planning of housing developments. However, later in his career, he decided to fulfil a lifetime’s interest in drawing and painting and found that working in watercolour was a relaxing departure from the more rigid disciplines of the architectural environment. Now retired, he lives in Auchtermuchty within the beautiful landscapes of the Howe of Fife. John regularly displaying his land and seascape paintings at various exhibitions and galleries. He works mainly in watercolour and constantly strives to capture light and atmosphere in his subject matter.
Jilly Ballantyne
After almost three decades in France then Cornwall, Jilly was drawn to return home to Scotland. She chose the East Neuk of Fife, a creative coastal community with picturesque working harbours on the Firth of Forth, Scotland. Here, feeling instantly very at home, Jilly has fulfilled a life long dream of living and working a stone’s throw from the sea. Being by the shore links all of the artist’s previous homes, each with a south coast, glittering in the sun. Perhaps this new daily proximity to the water and a sense of home has already begun to influence her recent work.