Most of the exhibition was made after the Spring of 2021 when the artist travelled to the tidal island of Eilean Shona on the west coast of Scotland. There he gathered images of its pinetum, which was planted in the 19th century by one of the island’s past owners Captain Swinburne. The resulting paintings show that some of the trees brought from abroad have fared better than others, some appear to have struggled with the climate, look untended or out-competed by the faster growing spruces, whilst others have flourished and can be seen towering from the mainland. The passing of time is acknowledged in the title of one of the exhibition’s main works Forgotten Trophies, (2021). This painting depicts some of the rarest specimens on the island, planted in a sheltered hollow behind the main house.
He has also made paintings of the native species such as the silver birches, whose gnarled forms hug the coastline. This tangle of the native and imported species can be seen in Trees and Windows On A Beach, A Dream,
