Exhibiting Artists:

Martin Oates & Sandi Anderson

Sandi Anderson
Sandi studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1974-79 and qualified in Graphic Design and Photography. She worked in film and television for 18 years as a graphic designer, specialising in animation. Having enjoyed a fulfilling career with the BBC, she decided the time was right to leave the design world behind in 1997.

It wasnt long before drawing and painting took hold once more, re-kindling an obsession that had last been fulfilled during art school days. She spent almost two years working in the life room using charcoal and pastel. Her transition to portraiture and working in oils was a natural progression. She has a particular love of drawing and won second prize in the Scottish Drawing Competition in 2005. Championing this fast disappearing discipline will always play an important part in her practice.

Her love of the great outdoors combines well with her en plein air expeditions, resulting in the current landscape work. The light and colours of the West of Scotland continue to inspire and challenge, as they have done for generations of painters before her.

She has exhibited with the RSA, RGI, PAI and several group shows in and around the west of Scotland.

Martin Oates

Martin was born in Glasgow in 1952 and his talent for drawing was evident from an early age, when he was rarely seen without a pencil and paper in hand. Largely self-taught, he continued to draw and paint throughout a career in the construction industry but, as demand for his work grew,he decided to focus exclusively on painting as a career.
Now a well-known exhibiting artist with work in many galleries and private collections he spends half his year painting Scotland`s varied landscape, and the other half in his studio in La Casa Celtica, Ronda, Andalusia, Spain offering painting holidays.
Martin has developed a unique style in watercolour landscape painting and his work is instantly recognizable on the walls of the many galleries which show his work. His unconventional approach and technique produces work that is both intense and dramatic.

Martin Oates on watercolour painting:
"Watercolour painting can be unforgiving, but it can also offer intense rewards. Unlike other mediums there is little room for error as over painting is not an option, so the artist must learn when to persevere and when to discard work. There is no guarantee of success."
"There is a sense in which the medium is subject to "controlled accident". This can add to the drama of the painting and enable the artist to more closely imitate nature when painting landscape and sky."
"The watercolourist must build a directory of techniques and also know when to stop painting. Once learned, these techniques form the foundation for progress as an artist."