I am a pure field based painter who works just in Watercolour and direct in brush. Specialising in nature, my paintings are as much about the landscape and weather, as they are about the atmosphere and the natural history that i observe and capture before me, whilst out on location. Natural history, and been outside has been my life since childhood, and i have now been working this way for almost 40 years. This particular Watercolour, ' Dawn over Islay with Barnacle Geese leaving the roost and storm arriving', was painting on a cold November morning overlooking Loch Indaal on Islay. Painted direct in brush with watercolour only and a storm arriving from the west, the effects of which can be seen drifting the cloud colour and stippling the paint. A Merlin - our smallest bird of prey - chased pipits in front of me to the cacophony of the departing geese. Painting 'en plein air', capturing the scene before me, with the inevitable effects of the weather, is what my work is all about.