The Small Isles

29 October 2026 - 21 November 2026

For two years, Matthew Draper has returned repeatedly to Scotland’s west coast, exploring the Small Isles and the mainland shores from which they are seen. Working in chalk pastel and charcoal, he is drawn to the shifting effects of light and weather: rain moving across water, clouds gathering over distant hills, and sudden breaks of sunlight transforming the landscape.

These works are the result of patient observation, repeated journeys and time spent drawing directly from the landscape before developing larger compositions in the studio. Ranging from intimate studies to expansive panoramic works, the exhibition captures the changing character of Eigg, Rum, Muck and Canna.

The Small Isles is Draper’s first major solo exhibition since 2021 and marks an important new chapter in his continuing exploration of the Scottish landscape.

About Matthew Draper

SSA VAS PS

Born: 1973

Place of Birth: Staffordshire

Matthew Draper identifies himself principally as a draughtsman; drawing being the most unencumbered and immediate form of image-making. His work is made with an intense and energetic immediacy, working instinctively rather than methodically, keeping him physically and emotionally involved in the process. He crushes soft pastels in his hands, rubbing the dust into the paper in wide sweeps of colour, gradually manipulating the material to build up a thick layered surface using the ball of his thumb or the heel of his hand.

He is interested in and influenced by the dramatic imagery of eighteenth and nineteenth century painting. He admires the idea of the contemplation of landscape in the Romantic spirit, found in the work of the German Romantics like Caspar David Friedrich and the notion of the grandeur of the landscape as expressed in the work of the American subliminal painters like Sanford Robinson Gifford and Frederic Edwin Church. These artists adopted the term ‘Luminism’, defined as light in the landscape and the effect that light has on the landscape and objects within it.

As a contemporary artist choosing to adopt this approach to light in the landscape, his interest is not to make straight forward topographical images that are illustrations of place. Instead he is attempting to make imagery that is descriptive of the circumstances under which the subject is viewed; images which convey a sense of place. The drawings are emotional reactions to events and experiences evolving in front of him; events happening or about to happen. The images become like fading memories or captured moments in time. The making of the work is in itself a set of actions and events which creates a harmony between his process and his interpretation of the subject.

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The Small Isles

About Matthew Draper

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