Meet Lorna

Scottish artist Lorna Stewart creates semi-abstract paintings strongly influenced by coastal locations and the contrasting landscapes of the Peak District and Scotland.

When she is not on location, Lorna works from two studios – her home studio south of Manchester and the Bullclough Mill studio in the Peak District. She works primarily with acrylics alongside mixed media and favours a limited palette. To create texture, Lorna builds up layers, sometimes scraping into areas while wiping others away. Always responding to each layer, she uses intuitive mark-making and paint expressively to respond to what she feels rather than what she sees.

Seascapes form a central part of Lorna’s work, inspired by visits to Anglesey, Cornwall and the east and west coasts of Scotland, where changing light, weather and tide create a sense of movement and shifting moods. She also spends time near the hills of Loch Lomond, where she is from, and in the Peak District - their rolling green hills offering a contrasting sense of rhythm, softness and space.

Although Lorna sketches and takes photographs on location, she paints largely from memory. This distance from the source allows her to move beyond literal representation, reducing each place to its essential forms and the feeling it holds. Lorna paints freely and expressively, working in a semi-abstract manner that invites the viewer to experience landscape as something felt as much as seen.

Lorna has exhibited in various exhibitions and galleries, including County Art Gallery, Cheshire; Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington; Chelsea Art Society Exhibition; and Bullclough Contemporary Gallery, Peak District.