Marion Drummond PAI

Born in Glasgow in 1958, Marion has a particular love of the Blane valley countryside with its diversity of wildlife, rivers, moorland and hills. Her daily walks supply her with colour notes for painting and the sheer enjoyment of seeing the constant changing of light and season.

"Largely self-taught, I have however benefited greatly from attending life classes under Christine Ironside, Drummond Mayo and Ann Johnston. My greatest influences in painting are varied from Rubens to Jenny Saville and I am very much inspired by all great drawing and painting.

I would probably describe myself as a representational/romantic artist and my focus is on light. Subject matter is always real and studied; number of petals of any flower observed and changes from life, still life to landscape, though I would tend to describe the latter more as weather-scape. When painting life I am looking for mood and presence and for the skin to breathe. With still life the colours are all there so I am looking for light, while with landscape I am looking at the time of day and the weather. Painting landscape in Scotland for me has to be done with speed as the light changes so frequently and I have to take pastel sketches and re-visit the site at the same time of day on a similar day weather-wise to properly work on a piece.

I paint with passion in oils with fingers and rags (no brushes) and my subject matter is varied from figurative, floral and still life to landscape. I used to paint with a knife, but found I was missing the curved line. I sculpt the paint, feeling my way and mixing on the board for speed and spontaneity and, whilst I am aware that the paint is toxic, I cannot feel anything like the same excitement when working with brushes This method evolved really out of the necessity of finding a quick way to work from life as a model can only sit for a finite time and I don't like revisiting a pose. I find the pose is never quite the same and I'd rather start afresh. I make a start with rags, dipping into oil and marking out the light, mixing on the board as I go and dragging, working wet on wet. The paint is never diluted. I love the feel of the paint and try to put energy and emotion into my paintings, making an abstract start and tightening as I go. The danger is always to over tighten and overwork the piece but I do enjoy experimenting and taking a painting as far as it can go before losing it and starting again. I can put a painting away for weeks or months (occasionally years) and revisit it with a fresh eye."

Marion exhibits in galleries across the UK and her paintings are in private and corporate collections throughout Europe. Marion was awarded the PAI diploma in 2018