Lofthouse Gallery, Orkney, 2008.

Carol Paterson has lived in the West of Scotland for most of her life teaching in the Textile Department of the Glasgow School of Art for 37 years.

During this time she worked on student projects and exhibitions all over Europe, the USA and the UK while also freelancing and exhibiting her own textile work. She has now retired from teaching in order to spend more time painting and printmaking.

In 2000 she acquired a small house in St Monans in Fife and now divides her time between the two places. The East coast has since provided the inspiration for her recent paintings and prints - the coastal villages, the light on the land and water and the fishing industry which has been so important to the livelihood of this largely unspoilt area of Scotland.

More recently the work has included images from further afield – the landscapes of Orkney, the Hebrides, Cornwall and Spain as well as still lives with fish, cats and birds.

Drawings and photographs are taken to the studio and worked into semi abstract images which are then scanned into the computer. Used as a sketchbook to explore colour, light and atmosphere the many images generated on the computer form the basis of the next group of paintings and prints. The most interesting images are finished and resolved as acrylic paintings and/or limited edition digital prints. In 2009 Carol Paterson joined the Glasgow Print Workshop which has allowed her to increase the size and quality of the prints– there are usually 30 or 50 in an edition and the size varies. They are sold mounted or framed and can be ordered from the artist.

The acrylic paintings are directly worked from some of the print images although they are developed through texture and colour on the canvas.

Kilbarchan, 2008.