David Unsworth

Painting 'en plein air', Lochaber based artist David Unsworth works with oil paints on linen canvases. He uses a layered technique, which begins with a ground of texture paste mixed with river sand taken from the painting’s location to represent the rugged nature of the landscape. A traditional underpainting is then applied before the final glazes are rendered. Often this requires two or three sessions on location. Unsworth’s work is a contemporary take on Romanticism’s idea of the contemplative sublime. Rather than the grand vista, he is drawn towards fragments of landscape, seeking intimate and personal responses to the vastness of this mountain environment. Layered paint suggesting layers of time, geology and memory and expressing a sense of deep stillness in a dynamic landscape.