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I've been out to the beautiful East Coast of Scotland to do preliminary work for new paintings.
This is the famous West Sands beach at St Andrews in Fife, with a particularly atmospheric sky.
Further down the coast, here I am at the iconic Forth Railway Bridge, with some amazing winter light.
Across the Firth of Forth and past Edinburgh, another favourite place to visit is North Berwick, which I have painted many, many times over the years in all seasons.
Here I am at nearby Seacliff, another favourite. It has a different, closer, view of the iconic Bass Rock.
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The winter light, which constantly changes, gives is a special golden glow, even though it's bitterly cold!
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Seacliff beach
I'll take the materials, photographs and notes that I've gathered out on location back to my studio, to work up into paintings. It's really important to me to catch the feeling of the day.
However, our circumstances over the last year, with the busyness of our lives taken away and the shrinking of our personal worlds, meant that the passing of the seasons and the minutiae of daily change became more intense, more focussed on, more meaningful and poignant, and even more closely observed. For many of us, nature has gradually moved to become something more central in our lives, something constant and comforting.
Of necessity, inspiration for me has had to come from much closer to home; from my garden, from my beautiful local park which I visit every day, from re-exploring familiar, happy places. As a result, I think that the subject matter of my paintings has gained a real intensity, with a focus on the abundance of the natural world, and the seasons and rhythms of nature which just keep going, despite everything, in a demonstration of hopefulness and joy.
Small things which might have been seen before as too mundane, too ordinary – wildflowers, a hedgerow, marks in the sand, waves on the shore, the patterns of crops, a sunset - now have an increased importance and significance. They have become things to treasure."
"Do Australian artists ever lose the antipodean light? The light and attending hope. Maybe not. Even when they paint in gloomier light such as northern Europe or Scotland. Here is Judith Bridgland, an Australian who paints in Scotland" OZAbbey @9AbbeyOZ Read the tweet HERE.
"Colour is her thing." Kieran Hughes @kieranhughes77 Read the tweetHERE.
"Judith Bridgland’s paintings hit me like a kick in the stomach, which doesn’t sound good, but does at least express a little bit of the punch which someone who handles paint like it springs from the tips of their fingers can give to a viewer through the experience of looking at their work. I am not a great lover of thickly applied paint generally, but when its done like this…I love it." London Art Fair 2012, Jenny Meehan Contemporary Artist blog
"Judith I Bridgland's Eastbourne Pier won the Royal Glasgow Institute's House For An Art Lover Prize in 2009. The resulting exhibition, a mix of subject matter and media "stemming from a love of colour and texture", is rooted in the genesis of that evocative oil. It's a snapshot of Bridgland's working process, her trademark vibrancy and textural dexterity worked out in a considerable variety of media and methods, from acrylics to procion dyes, screen prints to charcoals, organic matter and textiles. "Exploring texture and pattern through other media is a very useful starting point," says Bridgland. "Everything can be used to create art." If her Eastbourne subject matter stems from childhood familiarity, elsewhere there are colour-drenched acrylics of London and meaty oils of coastal Suffolk, including some fine, atmospheric and almost - but not quite - monochromatic renditions of Walberswick landing stages." Sarah Urwin Jones, The Herald, Saturday 14 May 2011
"...love the thick, textured, expression-filled paintwork" The Art Curator blog
"Working in oils, bold, vigorous rhythmical strokes of impasto paint reflect nature’s contrasts and harmonies. The ever-changing light illuminates fields, mountains, hedgerows and the sea, with the expanse of the natural forms contrasting with complex abstraction to give a strong sense of place." Wall Street International Magazine
"THE ENERGY IN THIS OUTPOURING OF CREATIVITY IS A JOY TO BEHOLD" The Scotsman
"ONE OF SCOTLAND'S FOREMOST CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS" Avenue Magazine
"STUNNING" "COLOUR EXPLODES FROM THE PALETTE OF JUDITH BRIDGLAND" East Anglian Daily Times
"POWERFUL AND DRAMATIC LANDSCAPES" "STAMPED THROUGH WITH COLOUR, ENERGY AND DRAMA" The Bristol Magazine
"NOW FIRMLY ESTABLISHED AS ONE OF SCOTLAND'S LEADING AND MOST COLLECTED ARTISTS... HER EXPRESSIVE PAINTING STYLE AND CHOICE OF LOCATIONS MAKE HER WORK AMPLIFY ALL THAT IS BEAUTIFUL IN NATURE. HER SHOW IS NOT TO BE MISSED" Out Bristol
"TRADEMARK VIBRANCY AND TEXTURAL DEXTERITY" The Herald
"ONE OF THE RISING STARS OF SCOTTISH PAINTING" Venue Magazine
"JUDITH BRIDGLAND CONFRONTS THE DRAMA AND EMOTIONS OF LANDSCAPE" The List
"BOLD, EXPRESSIVE AND FULL OF CONTRASTS" Artists and Illustrators