Opening on 20th of January in the windows of the Northlight Gallery Stromness is an exhibition of paintings by Jade Stout.

Jade Stout is a visual artist born in Orkney and now based in Falkirk, Scotland who specialises in contemporary landscapes. 

She trained as a painter, graduating in 2000 with a first class undergraduate degree and in 2002 with a fine art postgraduate degree, both from Edinburgh College of Art. Jade exhibited widely after art college, pausing for 10 years whilst her daughter was young, and returned to focused professional practice in 2020.

Jade paints from her garden studio, using acrylic, oil and watercolours to capture reimagined abstract landscapes and seascapes. She focuses on composition, light, layers and atmosphere. Using these to recreate memories of the Orkney Isles landscape and weather in which she grew up. She mixes these visions with the landscapes around her now in the Scottish Central Belt and from recent holidays. Combining these strands into imagined landscapes, not realistic representations.

She works on a variety of scales and surfaces. Starting with quick sketches on paper, moving to smaller and then larger canvas refining her compositions through this scaling up. 

Traces of coastal landscapes appear, evolve and merge, with influences spanning from the Scottish Isles to Scandinavia and Iceland to Croatia and France. The gentle curve and fall of Orkney beaches is a recurring image. Jade then combines with colours or atmospheric moods from the weather and season around her when painting – connecting and mixing her memories and ideas into something bigger that transcends a single place or time. 

Jade says of herself :

 “I’m Orcadian by birth leaving in 1996 for Edinburgh College of Art, my father is Alan Stout who is a sculptor and was the St Magnus Cathedral stone mason and my mum is Fiona Stout who worked for Ola Gorie until they moved down in 2000.”

The exhibition runs until 2nd of February.