Now known as MARI DONALD DESIGN COMRIE, PERTHSHIRE   Gallery / studio open most days all year for visitors Watercolour, Gouache and Oil paintings, Photographs and Cards from Roddy and Mari Donald Scottish landscapes - principally Perthshire and the West Coast and islands from Tiree to Orkney  

After some twenty-five years concentrating mainly on textiles we have turned our attention to the other, and up until  2004 when we ceased knitwear production, secondary side of our output and are now working exclusively in the visual arts, Roddy with photography and Mari in painting. Both of us are self taught but with over 40 and 30 years experience and practise respectively have over the years  developed our own distinctive approach to what we see and how we portray it.

Roddy started with bird photography back in the early 1960's with conventional film cameras and over the years has moved on to take pictures of anything he comes across but mainly nature in its many forms - wildlife, plants, landscapes and seascapes. Having switched to digital cameras in recent years he finds the time saved in the darkroom and the ability to check instantly that the intended result has been achieved makes life so much easier and gives much more time to take pictures. Despite the opportunities provided by working digitally to '' enhance or improve '' he prefers to leave things as they are working on the belief that if something is sufficiently interesting to be worth photographing as you see it then it shouldn't need any altering, except in exceptional circumstances, just simply because you can so easily today.

Mari is the painter beginning in the mid 1970's, her style best described as minimalistic/abstract, working mainly in watercolour but also using oil, gouache and charcoal with her subjects mainly land or seascapes, flowers and buildings or architectural features. Living in Perthshire at the heart of Scotland much of the inspiration for both of us comes from the hills virtually on our doorstep and the views from our windows, which thanks to the variable Scottish weather are constantly changing from day to day and even minute to minute, and this is reflected in the the number of paintings of Perthshire and around although we are slowly expanding our horizons to cover other areas of Scotland especially the West and North coast from Ardnamuchan to Orkney and many of the islands between. Over the years our work has found homes as far as Seattle, New York, Mexico, Peking and Auckland in addition to many in the U K and Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Oystercatchers on Culla Bay, Benbecula - Digital photograph by Roddy Donald

 

 Red Admiral - Digital photograph by Roddy Donald