William Neal

During the summer, I took a series of photos for William Neal, an artist based out in Wigtown, SW Scotland. For many years he’s painted landscapes of Galloway, but more recently he’s moved into creating large abstract artworks, full of light, texture and colour, but completely flat and smooth.

He was after some updated portraits and new images of his studio, so I was out there last week clicking away.

Part of his fascinating and varied background includes his association with prog-rock giants, Emerson Lake and Palmer, for whom he created the album covers for 'Tarkus' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition'

As we were coming towards the end of the session he mentioned an idea he’d had for a while about having a photo of him sitting outside at his easel, looking like a typical landscape artist, yet having one of his abstract works in front of him. That sounded like too much fun to miss, so we loaded bits and pieces into his car and went down to the harbour. We may have run well over time, but he did make me some rather nice sandwiches for lunch.

Following his direction with regard to colouring and the addition of a full moon he decided to use this image on the front page of his website:



However, to accompany his latest exhibition, Sylvan Droplet Variation, he also created a CD of music with musician Neil Williams. The Artist's photo he decided to use on the sleeve insert was one I took during the shoot of him holding his cat.



I have lot of fun taking photos, and I have just as much fun editing and playing with them in Photoshop. But the best aspect of this job is meeting people and finding out more about their lives, their passions and their world views.