Highland Colours – David Page

As recipient of the inaugural Highland Art Prize 2022, Page returns from Mull, now as a full-time artist, to Glasgow where he founded Page\Park Architects. Highland Colours, his latest exhibition, delves into the profound Highland terrain, a canvas moulded by diverse natural forces like geological shifts, erosion, growth, and weathering. These evocative artworks dissect the present spectacle: structure, outline, grain, and notably, hues chronicled across generations through Gaelic mountain place names. This series of emotive paintings explores the intricate tints of the Gaelic ‘colour chart’ – a testament to the erosion process – etched in layers of acrylic paint that is scraped, etched, soaked, dissolved and re-deposited.

The Highland Art Prize was launched in 2022 by the Highland Society of London, with the aim of supporting and promoting the work of visual artists from across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The event is held in conjunction with the Royal National Mòd each October, underlining the importance of visual art as part of the wider celebration of Gaelic culture. The Highland Art Prize exhibition comprises 75 artworks from the leading art societies, galleries and arts centres across the region, selected by those organisations from many hundreds of individual submissions. The inaugural competition was judged by Islay artist and BBC ALBA broadcaster Heather Dewar after selecting a shortlist of 10 artworks, she chose Drift by David Page as the 2022 Highland Art Prize winner. As part of his prize, David Page was offered the opportunity to exhibit new artwork at The Briggait’s 1873 Hall in Glasgow, courtesy of Wasps who provide studios and creative spaces to artists across Scotland. The Highland Society of London is delighted to support and promote this wonderful exhibition, hopefully the first of many to come from the Highland Art Prize initiative.

David Page started his career in the arts by founding Page/Park Architects. Page has always viewed architecture as the art of making the built environment, and, for him, drawing was essential to that process. The challenge now, as a full-time artist, is to combine both image and experience on a flat surface. Page returns to Glasgow, as the recipient of the 2022 Highland Art Prize, from his home on Mull to showcase fourteen emotive paintings in an exhibition titled Highland Colours. Within this exhibition, he envisions the landforms of the Highlands anew, not with the aim of documenting them, but rather to replicate the natural processes of erosion and deposition that initially shaped them. This time, paint is his medium: layering, scraping, sponging, scouring, and sandpapering, all while observing the juncture when chaotic energy imparts a mark resembling the visited and experienced places. Around these marks, the landscape image evolves.

This is the first time Page has shown at The Briggait, Glasgow. His work is also exhibited at Calgary Arts, Isle of Mull, Canvas Galleries, Belfast, City Contemporary Art Gallery, Perth.