A group of artists from the north and north-east have bagged prestigious awards for their water colour creations.
Aberdeen artist Jenny Ross, Jen Stephen from Stonehaven, Caithness-based Neil Macpherson and Gray’s School of Art graduate Chris Bushe, have been recognised at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour 135th Annual Exhibition.
The society’s £50 Watermark Award was awarded to Miss Ross for her painting ‘How to Tread the World’, where she explores the concept of the unreal.
She said she was “hugely pleased” to have won.
“It’s always really enjoyable making paintings but this project was one I set for myself and it was just finding an imagined theme and a different way of using paint,” she said.
“It’s also got a small area of drawing and collage in it, which was part of the idea as well, bringing different media into a small area.”
Mr MacPherson from the Highlands was awarded the £500 Council Award for his colourful ‘Blue Dog looking for the Blue Danube’.
Gray’s School of Art graduate Miss Stephen won the £300 RSW student prize.
She said: “I studied Earth Sciences at Aberdeen University many years ago and was employed by BP as a geoscientist for over 30 years until I elected to take early retirement in 2011 so that I could study painting full time at Gray’s School of Art.
“The painting was informed by my long held fascination with the sea and all things coastal.”
Mr Bushe, who graduated from the school in 1983, won the £300 Fotheringham Gallery Award for an Aberdeenshire-inspired painting.
He said: “I grew up in Aberdeenshire and remember very heavy periods of snowfall where we could not go to school and the roads were often blocked.
“I found being ‘caught’ in this winter landscape particularly beautiful and inspiring and still return to the region every year when the snow comes.
“My painting ‘Winter Solstice, Aberdeenshire’ is as much about those memories of childhood and rural living as my recent painting trips back to the area.”
The exhibition officially opens today at the Royal Scottish Academy building in Edinburgh.