SINCE he launched his YouTube channel in 2010, the work of Scottish artist Scott Naismith has been much in demand.

He is about to exhibit in Paris and the Johnny Walker whisky makers recently acquired some of his paintings to adorn their flagship store in Edinburgh and four key distilleries.

Before Paris, there is a chance to see his latest paintings at the Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh in an exhibition called Recursion which represents a refinement of his previous work.

Born in Glasgow in 1978, Scott graduated with a a BDes (Hons) in Illustration and Printmaking from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2000.

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He initially took up work as an illustrator while also painting Glasgow scenes which sold so well he realised he would make a better living from his own work than by working for someone else.

His first solo exhibition in Hamilton was a success and enabled him to buy a car which he used to explore and paint the West Coast of Scotland. That has become his subject matter for the last 22 years, with Skye a particular favourite.

Over time Scott’s work has developed from a more straightforward and representational approach to landscape painting in which the rugged coastlines and beautiful sunsets of Scotland have been shared with viewers on the canvas, to a more abstract approach now, which involves using the immediate subject of landscape to explore concepts such as recursion, which occur within it.

“I call my paintings atmospheric abstraction because I am trying to get an essence of place through an abstract approach to the work,” he said.

Although he regularly visits some of Scotland’s most spectacular places he tends to paint without any visual references in front of him.

“I want to capture the essence of the place which might include several experiences around that area,” he said. “My goal is to have the viewer recognise a made-up scene. It is painted as somewhere that doesn’t exist but recognition of that means the viewer recognises the feel, the essence of the place. That is the goal.”

Explanations of how he makes his work are available on his YouTube channel which was garnering 1500 views a day within a couple of years of its launch and has now registered well over three million views.

Each of his exhibitions has a different name such as Order and Chaos.

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Scott explained: “One of the most common questions asked of me is when, as a  semi-abstract painter, I know when a painting is finished.  My answer is when order balances chaos. I begin in chaos, getting paint down quickly at the beginning then making it more refined - if gets too refined I have got to add the energy again.

“Matisse is a big influence of mine and he said he didn’t paint things but painted the difference between them, so I often have texture next to a smooth softness, and high colour versus black white and grey,” said Scott.

His upcoming Edinburgh exhibition is called Recursion because recursion refers to a process in which a pattern repeats itself on a smaller and smaller scale. This can be found in nature in things like ferns, trees and coastlines, in which smaller elements make up larger elements that are all interconnected.

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In Scott’s paintings various elements and concepts recur throughout on a variety of scales. There is the top to bottom vertical transition of light to dark, spiritual to corporeal, heaven to earth, simple to complex. In all of his work there is the sense that the micro is in the macro and vice versa, and that each small part of his painting can also be read visually to reveal the whole.

“These are fundamentally paintings of hope and light, and the sublime and awe inspiring experience of being a part of the natural world,” said Scott.

As an artist, Scott has spent his career building on and perfecting his ideas and technique.

“Every exhibition has a new way of thinking about the previous ones,” he said. “I always think the progression of an artist through the years needs to be glacially slow because that is when you know there is an authentic nature to it. That is where the idea of recursion comes in as well because the same ideas are recurring and as an artist you are trying to hone them down to the absolute best you can do. You master something before moving on,” said Scott.

The exhibition will run from May 20 to June 4 at Morningside Gallery in Edinburgh.

www.morningsidegallery.co.uk/exhibition/28065