I am delighted to present an exhibition of landscape works, running from the 6th to the 31st of May 2023, in Tom Barron’s Perth Contemporary City Art Gallery, exploring the theme of ‘Taken for Granted’. These paintings draw inspiration and direction from Scotland’s uplands and the pressures they face. Through the use of scrapings, rubbings, smudgings, soakings, sprayings, sandings and spreadings, my aim is to capture the space between the raw immediacy underfoot and the resplendent distant silhouette against the sky.

As a former architect, having run my own practice (Page\Park Architects) in Glasgow, I have had the opportunity to witness the emergence of a reconciliation between the need to modernise city settings and the desire to conserve what was already there. This experience has taught me that we must carefully consider the impact of our actions on the landscapes we are acting on, especially as we face the pressing need to modernise our economy by "greening" it. We must strike a sensitive balance between achieving mutually beneficial green targets and conserving the natural green that already exists.

In light of this urgency, we must not take these landscapes for granted in our discussions. By using my art to highlight this issue, I hope to encourage others to pause and reflect on how we can create a more sustainable future while respecting the beauty and fragility of our environment.