Scotty Mitchell

My landscapes are very much about specific time and place, the way that shadow falls just at that time of day, or how that branch curls just so. So I usually don’t paint for long in one sitting, but return to the same site at the same time of day and the same weather conditions. Sometimes I have to wait a year for the conditions to repeat themselves!

I use all manner of chalk pastels, hard and soft, sometimes building up lines and sometimes smudging… whatever is called for. I love to be out in nature and in communion with my subject, to be immersed in the now. I pay attention with love and care and nature answers me back, revealing new insights and nuances.

I feel like I’m plugged into the universe when I lose myself in the looking and drawing. My pastels are a celebration of visual delights. Being present with my subject is, for me, the best way to capture its vitality and spirit. I want the viewer to be there. I hope to share my love of the natural world and in showing how I see it, to perhaps enrich or widen my viewers’ perception of nature.