Graeme Swanson

Color dictates Graeme Swanson’s understated, atmospheric oil paintings. Soft expanses of reds, yellows or blues give his work an emotive, transfixing quality; his paintings immediately invite meditation. While influenced by places, architecture, nature and history, Swanson tends to record a mood more than he records an actuality. He is attuned to sunlight and to the nature of his surroundings but he abstracts the representational moments that initially inspire him, so that reality becomes more ephemeral and experiential. It is the physical spaces depicted in his paintings that primarily provide the underlying structure for Swanson’s exploration of how colors, painterly gestures and textures can harmoniously work together to create a memorable visual experience.

Swanson, who lives and works in Aberdeen, Scotland, graduated from Gray's School of Art in 1979 and received a Post Graduate Teaching Certificate from Northern College in Aberdeen. His work was recently on display at the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, Mall, London.