Flying high

World apart at Union Gallery

2012 will be finished in a little over three hours, as I start writing this. It's been quite a year. I began it by painting a new series of paintings, Worlds apart, to show in April at Union Gallery. That series worked out better than I could have hoped for and they looked great in the gallery, face to face with Kevin Low's imaginary world.

One wall of A place called home

While I was working on my series, Megan Chapman and I had a show of our joint work in Bentonville, Arkansas, which was followed a few months later by another joint show a few miles south in Springdale. We were not able to attend the first show, as we were both in Scotland at the time, however we were in Arkansas for the second show, A place called home, which we were very happy with.

Following my trip to Arkansas, I immersed myself in the politics of Scotland's quest for independence and began a long body of work, Elegy for the End of an Empire. Taking cues from the work preceding it, my paintings began to get darker and more dynamic. The series is ongoing and I hope to pick up were I left it later in the year, as the independence debate hots up.

'When we float' at the RSA

The end of the year saw a furry of exhibitions. Firstly I had a painting accepted for the Royal Scottish Academy 2012 Open! At the same time, I have to paintings showing in Philadelphia! And when the new year comes around, some of the Elegy paintings will be featured in Union Gallery's new year exhibition. All three of the exhibitions will run to the end of January.

This is just a snippet of my year in art. Over it, there have been many ups and many downs and a lot of hard work. In a week's time, I'll be heading back to Arkansas. After all of the hard work, I think it might be time to take a little break!

Thank you everyone who has supported me over the year. I would not have reached this stage without you!