Ian Rawnsley - Artist Profile

For a number of years I have designed and delivered activities to teach creativity and its use as a vehicle to aid self confidence and self awareness, particularly in young people. I have become a passionate advocate for progressive education where the love of learning is at the centre of new approaches to develop self worth and employability in difficult times.

Artist Bio

My own journey as an artist began back in the 1960s where the local shopkeeper I'm sure was convinced by my regular visits to buy pencils I was suffering some kind of obsession. This childhood hobby diminished as I got older to focus on what I was told was important, exams, qualifications, getting into University and then a steady sensible job. University and the sensible job eventually came, although my love of art and design never diminished although focussing my life on it never entered my head.

Just on a whim back 2003/4 I bought some canvases and acrylic paint and never stopped. Becoming professional back in 2006 it took a number of years to develop a style which reflected my love of the sea. My current seascape and landscape work involves representing texture and light with Oil on cotton panels, working from small scale of 9 x 9 inches, to larger format 24 x 27inch work.Influences are as far wide as the artists Turner , Joan Eardley , Whistler and GF Watts. Currently based in Troon on the Ayrshire coast the pull of the sea is ever present in my life and having spent three years on the Irish coast it’s never far from my mind and is an ever present element to my artwork. Like many artists before the western shore whether Cornwall, the ” Big Skies ” of the Hebridean isles, Scotland’s East coast, or the shores of Donegal in NW Ireland continue to cast their spell.