Darren Woodhead to headline winter SOC exhibition

The Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC) has announced details of its forthcoming winter exhibition, entitled New Work, which will feature the craft of well-known Scottish wildlife artist Darren Woodhead.

In the exhibition, Woodhead presents work created over the past two years. Working along the coast, rivers and fields of his native East Lothian, he observes and paints birds, insects and landscapes found in this stretch of the Scottish countryside.

Woodhead is a feld painter. He stands in the landscape, immersed in the natural world he depicts, and works from direct observation in brush and watercolour. There is no studio. He observes and reacts in the moment to the appearance of a bird or the fluttering of passing butterflies. To produce such joyful and seemingly effortless work relies on consummate skill as a painter and as a naturalist.

Julian Spalding, writer and former museum director, enthused: "Few artists alive today have such skills at their fingertips, and not many have had in the past. This is what makes his achievement so exceptional and his paintings so full of life and light. And the extraordinary thing is that this light is nothing more than plain white paper."

The exhibition runs from 22 November 2019-15 January 2020 at Waterston House, Aberlady, East Lothian, EH32 0PY. It is open daily between 10 am and 4 pm, but will be closed on 25-26 December and 1 January.