Alastair blain

Alastair Euan Blain, born in Paisley, grew up in the West of Scotland in the rural valley of Strathgryffe. The early years of his life spent on the land instilled in him a strong appreciation of the beauty of nature. Alastair’s development in the creative arts began in 2012 in his birth-town, where the basics of drawing provided a foundation for future steps. In 2014, with a portfolio and a passionate heart, he set forth to the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa, New Zealand. For three years he studied there, attending a different art school each year, embarking on a semi nomadic creative journey, where he encountered traditional craft, working with natural materials which provided him a vision that would stay with him for years to come. By the end of this trilogy, he yearned to learn the ways of the old painting tradition of Europe. In 2017, he set his sights on Vienna. Living there for a year and a third, he met the colleagues and mentors that led him to the techniques and methods in oil painting that enabled him to really express his love and appreciation of nature, history and landscape. Alastair has since come home from his journeys beyond. His eyes, heart and mind have been completely claimed by the rugged hills, woodlands and river ways of his local area, seeing anew the hillside of his earliest memories. 

When out hunting for a composition, Alastair gathers fragmentary sketchess over many excursions. He combines these in the studio on an emlargee canvas. Making his own paints, from natural pigments found on location, Alastair follows the time tested ways of the old masters. He even builds his own canvases and frames to keep the process entirely hands on.

Using intuition and imagination, he strives to bring an essence of the landscape to the viewer. Whilst still leaving room for their own narratively to form.