Magical Orkney ~ Drawing & watercolour painting holiday in Orkney

Through the week we will travel to various locations around Orkney Mainland, including Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Sites Ring of Brodgar standing stone circle and Skara Brae prehistoric village. Weather permitting, we’ll take a ferry across to the nearby island of Hoy to sketch its dramatic cliffs and bays. Rackwick Bay on the west side of Hoy is particularly stunning and strongly associated with both the composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and poet writer George Mackay Brown.

One of the evenings we will immerse in Orkney tales by the fire in a session of island storytelling. Also on the menu are visits to the studios of local Orkney artisans to hear about their work and how Orkney inspires it.

Whenever the weather allows, we will work outdoors in watercolour, ink and other media, looking at the sea, cliffs, crofts, ancient standing stones and more. Perhaps you wish to experiment with incorporating Orkney Norse myths and legends into your paintings? Wildlife will be discussed too – nature, conservation and especially birds are the foremost inspiration in Leo’s own work and personal life and on Orkney the wildlife is both abundant and diverse.

Leo is delighted to lead this art experience as Orkney is one of his favourite places. He is a well known Scottish watercolour painter and an inspiring tutor. Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in Drawing & Painting in 2006, Leo has been a full-time professional artist and art tutor, exhibiting around Scotland and the UK.

His inspiration is the natural world and he takes every opportunity to explore on foot, by bike, by train, sketching and painting in the landscape and using material gathered to complete other works back in the studio. Leo is a keen environmental campaigner and undertakes bird counts for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and other voluntary conservation activities. He’s rather obsessed with birds, they appear in his work often.