Sila Collins-Walden

I was born in England in 1946 and spent a lot of my early childhood in Ireland. I always wanted to be an artist. However, my mother had other ideas for me, I was to have a career in healthcare. My chance encounter with a team of artists whilst working in a large psychiatric hospital in late 1979 brought me closer to my ambition. I gave up my job and embarked on a Recreational Arts course at Manchester College of Art, I never regretted it.

I have worked as a community artist/tutor for many years running workshops and art classes in Manchester as well as in Inverness. I was instrumental in setting up a hospital arts project at Raigmore Inverness in the early 90's. I work mostly in acrylics and oil although I use other media, often experimenting with watercolour and introducing unusual materials such as bits of wood, paper, eggshells and cobweb dust!

I work with a palette knife and sometimes my fingers (I call them fingerscapes!). I create semi-abstract renditions of the mountainous regions of Scotland, especially the West Coast and the Isle of Skye, as well as the arctic environments of Canada and America. I also do what I refer to as "Flowerscapes" - these are semi-abstract works of flowers and commonly come from my imagination. I also do large abstract works mostly to commission.

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The artist I admire most is Turner for the way he captures light in his paintings and the skill and confidence in the way he used to paint. Like Turner, I too love to express myself in paint. Another artist who inspires me is Kandinsky. Although of a very different hue, he and I have in common a condition known as Synaesthesia, a perceptual phenomenon where the senses are combined. Kandinsky saw a relationship between colours, sound and between music and painting. I perceive days of the week as having colour and shapes and have transfered this on to canvas in the form of a painted poem.

I paint nearly every day.

Exhibitions:

• Royal Exchange Manchester.
• Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.
• Rockfield Gallery Manchester.
• Eden Court, Inverness.
• Scottish Natural Heritage HQ, Inverness.
• Annually at Strathpeffer Art Fair.

Regular exhibitor at:

• Beauly Gallery, Beauly, Inverness-shire.
• Storehouse Restaurant.
• Leakey's Bookshop.
• Grieg St Studio.