Yasmin Davidson Contemporary Landscape Artist: Berneray

This week as the last part of my November theme (yes I know it is now December!): ‘Celebrating Creative Women in the Hebrides – I caught up with contemporary artist Yasmin Davidson who is currently living on Berneray. I say currently as she has had a meandering and intriguing travel journey to arrive on our wee Hebridean island.

Yasmin, how about telling us a bit about you journey to Berneray both in terms of your art and your travels?

Yasmin Davidson – wearing Birlinn Yarn ‘Seapink Hat and Mittens’ by Anna Elliot.

I have always had a taste for the unknown, that feeling you get when you step off of a plane and the air is so thick and hot with different smells. New cultures and the way people interact and communicate with each other is something that will never become old for me.

When I travel, I always tend to plan out a journey or at least know where I am going. As a person, I have always struggled with finding that sense of home. I never actually planned to be in Berneray so I was always a bit unsure to begin with.

I was born in Scotland in a city called Dundee and I also studied fine art in University there for four years, shortly after my studies I began to get itchy feet, I felt like I had grown out of Dundee and I always wanted to live abroad and live somewhere that I didn’t feel the need to leave all the time.

I have visited many countries over the years, before I moved to the Isle of Berneray I was living in Canada with my partner. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had but due to visa issues I had to go back to the U.K. My partner is originally from North Uist and that is how I came to be in Berneray.

I actually found the transition from Canada to Berneray quite difficult at first because I wasn’t ready to leave Canada and I arrived during the first lock down of covid, I found it hard to meet people at first.

Living in Berneray and living on the island in general has forced me to slow down and appreciate things around me and it has given me breathing space to think about my future properly. When I was living in Canada I was painting and making art but not as much as I have been here and I feel like I have developed a lot as an artist. I have definitely touched base with my Scottish roots again and the quiet lifestyle has given me such a good platform to think about my next steps instead of jumping around with little direction.

Berneray has been really refreshing for me and has set my compass in the right direction again. My paintings have also developed into something that I am proud of and they are much more embodied with my own expression, I can now carry that with me wherever I go.

Berneray Crofter – Yasmin Davidson

Your work seems to encompass both still life of the everyday, people going about their work but also distinctive features within landscapes, I presume all relating to your travels and people you have met … How do you settle on a subject that you want to paint?

When I paint, I want to tell a story and convey it through pattern and colour. I think that objects, be it an image of a car outside a house or a bag on a table can say a lot on its own and its about being able to see the narrative within that. I am drawn to people going about their everyday life. People on the Island are so proud of their jobs and working the land. I am fascinated by crofters and fisherman at the moment, how they feel that sense of responsibility and trying to capture that vibrancy and importance that they feel when doing that job.

Potato Pickers – Yasmin Davidson

What is your creative process do you work from sketches made on site, photos, your imagination or a combination of all of these?

Most of the time I am using my imagination to enhance the photos that I take on my phone.

I never work on site, I find it too distracting and I can never be present in the moment enough to paint, I’d rather be exploring or admiring. I often find that just being present is enough to absorb the image in and reproduce it as my own interpretation. Quite often I have to improvise but it also helps me to focus less on the finer details and it encourages me to use my own colour choice. I tend to photograph mostly when I’m out driving, I just pull over and photograph whatever catches my eye.

Downpour Gin – Yasmin Davidson

You are not inhibited by colour nor a confident use of texture, when you paint what is it that you are wishing to express?

I am definitely not afraid of colour, I am afraid of not having enough colour. Colour holds emotion to me.

When I paint, I want to remember that moment as a memory and not as a realistic image. The images that I remember are usually colourful but only because I am drawn to colour, even if I am memorizing a rather dark and dull image there is always colour within that, be it through the memory of the temperature, hot or cold or by the time of day.

I love thick opaque creamy paint. Before I went to university to study art, I attended art college for a few years and I always remember one of my art tutors telling me that ‘You have to have the painting looking so good that you want to lick it’. This was a funny bit of advice that has always stuck with me and it still resonates with me today, I often go to exhibitions and ask myself if it’s good enough to eat!

Yasmin’s edible paint palette.

What are you drawn to paint here in the islands?

Living in Berneray has been an adjustment for me, I previously painted a lot of urban scenes and figurative scenes. When I moved here, I was always looking for unusual images to paint but I found it hard to find the sort of inspiration that I was previously drawn to.

Living here forced me to try a different approach to my paintings. One day when I was driving home in summer, I started looking at the landscape in a new way, I started noticing how the colours seem to run in to each other and form almost marble effects and how the hills almost look like a patchwork quilt. I started noticing structures of colour and not just green mundane hills. I feel like I have a better understanding of landscape, I’m enjoying the process and I am definitely still learning how to portray it in a way that translates a story to me. The island has taught me how to see a different kind of beauty, rugged and wild.

Committee Road, North Uist – Yasmin Davidson.

Thank you Yasmin it has been a delight speaking to you and hearing about your travels and creative practice.

If you would like to follow Yasmin, see more of her work or make contact please go to her Instagram account: yasmin9499