Why I Paint the Feeling of Scotland
There is something about Scotland that is difficult to put into words.
It might be the way the light suddenly changes across a Highland hillside. The mist sitting low over the mountains. Rain moving across the landscape. A tiny cottage appearing through the haze. Sheep standing completely unconcerned in the middle of it all.
These are the things that keep drawing me back to painting Scotland.
I’m Wendy Sara, a Scottish landscape artist based in Edinburgh, and I paint expressive acrylic landscapes inspired by the places, weather and atmosphere that make Scotland feel like Scotland.
More than a picture of a place
I’m not particularly interested in making paintings that look like photographs.
When I paint a Highland landscape, I want to capture something beyond the geography. I want the painting to have atmosphere. I want you to be able to almost feel the weather.
Sometimes that means a dramatic sky. Sometimes it is the soft glow of evening light. Sometimes it is the bleakness of a wet winter day.
Scotland is constantly changing, and that gives me an endless supply of inspiration.
The same landscape can feel completely different depending on the season, the weather and the light. That is what I find exciting about painting Scottish landscapes.
The Highlands are a constant source of inspiration
The Highlands and the west coast of Scotland feature heavily in my work.
I’m drawn to the big spaces, rugged mountains, remote roads, scattered houses and ever-changing skies. Places such as Skye and the Cuillins particularly appeal to me because they can feel both beautiful and slightly wild.
I don’t want every painting to be a postcard.
I’m much more interested in the atmosphere of a place and the feeling it leaves you with.
A painting might be inspired by a particular view, but the finished work is my interpretation of it rather than a literal reproduction.
And then there are the sheep
Sheep have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
I have always loved them, and they naturally found their way into my paintings. They aren’t usually there simply because they happen to be part of a Scottish landscape. I like giving them a little personality. A sheep looking directly at you can completely change the feeling of a painting. Sometimes they are quietly observing the world. Sometimes they look as though they have somewhere much more important to be.
They have become an increasingly recognisable part of my work, alongside the Highland landscapes themselves.
Painting Scotland in acrylic
I work primarily in acrylic paint, building up texture, colour and atmosphere in layers.
I tend to work with a relatively limited palette and mix my own colours rather than reaching for a huge range of ready-made paints.
That helps me create the muted greens, smoky blues, warm ochres, soft greys and occasional flashes of stronger colour that I associate with the Scottish landscape.
I particularly love the contrast between quiet, atmospheric backgrounds and something that catches the eye in the foreground.
It might be a sheep.
It might be a house.
It might simply be a shaft of light.
Why buy an original Scottish landscape painting?
For me, an original painting is about more than owning an image of somewhere you have visited.
It can bring back a particular feeling.
Perhaps you have travelled through the Highlands and remember the weather closing in around you. Perhaps Skye is somewhere you return to again and again. Perhaps you simply love Scotland and want a piece of that atmosphere in your home. That is what I hope my paintings can offer. I want them to feel like Scotland rather than simply depict Scotland.
My paintings are about the feeling of Scotland
The longer I paint, the more I realise that this is what I am really trying to capture.
Not perfect mountains.
Not postcard scenery.
Not photographic accuracy.
The feeling.
The wildness, the weather, the quiet, the humour, the enormous skies and those fleeting moments when the Scottish landscape looks completely different from the day before.
That is the Scotland I want to paint.
And if one of my paintings reminds you of somewhere you love, or makes you want to get back on the road north, then I think it has done its job.
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