News...r Derek Robertson

Happy New Year. 2010 was a busy year for me with exhibitions in Dundee, London, Skye and Mull...and field trips to the Hebrides and a week spent on the spectacular Shiant Isles where I was studying seabirds with a team of dedicated researchers. We were trapping and ringing the seabirds as part of ongoing studies. It reminded me that my long-prepared book on puffins really must get to press soon. The paintings are completed and I need to find some time to sit down and prepare the layout and writing. I really expect to have it published in 2012.

I have an exciting show coming up in St Andrews: exhibiting as part of the STanza poetry festival, the paintings of my narrative work will show the collaborative pieces I have worked on with the poet Rody Gorman who will be reading at the festival. Details are on the exhibition pages. I have also made a dedicated website for my narrative paintings. You can find it at www.creativepastures.com

I am taking a few months to build up a completely new body of work for exhibitions next year. These will include landscapes of my favourite places: Fife, Skye and Mull, and a collection of new wildlife paintings. I am going to be working up the sketches I made through the summer and concentrating on completing these new studio compositions rather than working on new fieldwork and sketches. If I find the time I will also write up the file of fieldnotes and studies I have on my desk which I have promised various editors that I will turn into articles and short papers for a number of magazines and journals

Please make a note of future exhibitions by checking the exhibition page on the website. Perhaps you'd like to visit one of my major exhibitions on Skye or Mull? Please phone me and I will make sure I am there to meet you and show you around the exhibition. You can find my details on the contact page of the website. Please also make a note of the dates for the North Fife Open Studios. This year I will have several new landscape paintings of Fife and the Tay. You can check out the venues for all the exhibitors by viewing the on-line brochure... Click here for details.