Collection: Peter Davis

Peter Davis is an award-winning Scottish artist and member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW). After spending much of his time teaching in Orkney and Shetland, he is now a full time artist working from his coastal Shetland studio.

Painting Northern landscapes for over 40 years, it is Peter’s experimental handling of watercolour which is pivotal to these ethereal conjurings of the Shetland landscape. Instead of traditional brushwork you will see expansive washes of colour, areas of pooling and feather-like, bleeding marks. Peter leans into the natural fluidity of watercolour and its obedience to gravity - expertly directing the water but also allowing it to flow unpredictably. 

This process-driven tension between order and chaos results in artworks which move between representation and abstraction. He seeks not just to record a scene, but to create something new. The wild, remote and beloved Northern landscape around him provides a framework to explore the qualities and evocative power of paint.