The Best Scottish Landscapes to Turn Into Art From Highlands to Coast

Scotland is home to some of the world’s most breathtaking landscapes: from dramatically rugged, purple-tinged mountain ranges to windswept, isolated beaches. These places make extraordinary subjects for art because they hold emotion, memory and storytelling in every shift of light.

Scotland Is an Artist’s Dream

Why Scottish Landscapes Make Such Captivating Art

As a landscape artist, I feel deeply attuned to Scotland’s wildest and most remote places, its beaches, mountains and moorlands. They translate beautifully into contemporary, expressive paintings, filled with movement and feeling.

Scotland also contains some of Europe’s last true wildernesses. In the Highlands and Islands, vast peat bogs, towering mountains, quiet lochs and remote peninsulas create landscapes that feel both ancient and alive.

In this blog I’m sharing some of my favourite locations to paint, along with glimpses of a few series I’ve worked on over the years.

The Drama of the Highlands

Wild Beauty That Speaks to the Soul

After leaving art school, I spent around 18 months immersed in a series of paintings of Glencoe. Like an author writing a memoir, I wanted to explore my own memories and emotional connection to this hauntingly beautiful part of the Highlands.

Perhaps because I’ve known Glencoe my whole life - or perhaps because its spirit feels so magnetic - I still find myself trying to capture its essence in paint. In my most recent solo exhibition, I included some looser, more abstract works inspired by Loch Rannoch. It’s a landscape full of surprising colour: purples, blues and quiet flashes of gold.

“Dusk Light” (Rannoch Moor, 2025)

Serene Lochs With Mountainous Views

Stillness Light and Emotional Connection

Scotland’s beautifully still and picturesque lochs are another endless source of inspiration.

The west coast’s fjord-like sea lochs, including Gare Loch and Holy Loch, sit alongside the calmer freshwater lochs such as Loch Tay, Loch Katrine and Loch Awe, all of which appear regularly in my work. I love their constantly shifting light, weather and colours.

The first painting I ever sold was of a loch-side campfire. A soon-to-graduate Edinburgh University student bought it because it reminded him of childhood evenings spent around campfires, a reminder that paintings often hold memories as much as they hold colour.

Below is a commissioned painting of Loch Lomond, created for a client who wanted to capture cherished holidays spent on its shores. We both love the remains of the ancient piers that rise out of the water, small details that hold so much history.

Scottish Islands and an Endless Horizon

Where Land Meets Sea in the Most Striking Way

My love of Scotland’s islands began when I spent a few weeks living in Glenelg as a child, the closest mainland point to the Isle of Skye. This was before the bridge was built, and although ferries ran from Kyle of Lochalsh, there was something irresistibly mysterious about looking westward towards the island.

I’ve since spent time in the Outer Hebrides, a place that exudes an edge-of-the-world ruggedness, and in Orkney, which surprised me with its gentler, more rural landscape, dotted with lush pastures and yellow buttercups.

The colour in the Outer Hebrides changes constantly. On overcast days, the palette is all greys and blues; but when the sun breaks through, the whole world comes alive: turquoise seas, white sand beaches and explosions of tiny wildflowers along the shoreline. It’s unbelievably beautiful.

”The Best of Both Worlds” (Orkney, summer 2025) painted back in a warm studio after my fingers had defrosted…

Windswept Beaches and Glints of Light

Coastlines: Perfect Painting Weather

Living in Edinburgh, I’m lucky to have the beautiful beaches of East Lothian close by. Though, realistically, no-one in Scotland is ever far from a beach!

One of my favourite studio days was spent creating “Salt and Gold”. Some paintings take months to complete, but this one arrived in a day. You can see a time-lapse of the process on Instagram.

It felt like therapy: fast-moving clouds, salty sea spray, and the familiar sweep of Belhaven Beach. I painted instinctively, and I knew immediately that the piece was something special.

A lovely customer bought it just at Pittenweem Arts Festival. Here it is hanging in her home:

Woodland Autumnal Colour

Quiet Autumn Gold

My favourite season to paint in Scotland is autumn. Every year, I make pilgrimages to Perthshire to see, and sketch, the trees and hillside colours. The deep golds, bronzes, yellows, dark reds and greens of the forests and moors are irresistible.

I never tire of trying to capture autumn’s atmospheric mood and the richness it brings to the landscape.

“Amber Hillside” 2025

Winter Landscapes Moody Atmospheric and Full of Emotion

Scotland’s Winter Light Is a Painting in Itself

Winter in Scotland has a quiet magic. Frosted moorlands, snow-dusted mountains and dramatic skies create scenes full of atmosphere and contrast. The low winter sun casts soft blue shadows and warm golden light, turning even the simplest landscape into something poetic.

For artists, this tension of warm and cool tones makes winter landscape art especially moving. These scenes carry a sense of stillness and reflection, a pause in the year that translates beautifully into paint.

How to Choose a Landscape for Your Home

Pick a Place That Feels Like Part of Your Story

Choosing landscape art is deeply personal. Some gentle guidance:

• Choose a place that holds meaning: holidays, family memories or locations that feel like part of you.

• Think about the mood you want the artwork to bring: calm, energy, nostalgia or brightness.

• Consider the colours that suit your home and how they make you feel.

• Trust your instincts. When you feel a connection to a painting, it’s usually the right one.

If you’re browsing landscape paintings for sale or hoping to buy original artwork, let emotion be your guide.

Why Commissioning a Landscape Makes It Even More Meaningful

Turning Your Favourite Scottish View Into Art

A commission is one of the most personal ways to bring art into your home. Many clients ask me to paint:

• a favourite view

• a holiday memory

• a much-loved loch or beach

A custom landscape painting turns those memories into something lasting. It becomes a visual story and a reminder of where you feel most at peace.

Working with Me

Bring a Piece of Scotland’s Beauty Into Your Home

I specialise in expressive Scottish landscape paintings inspired by light, colour and emotion. Whether you’re looking for a striking original piece, something small and thoughtful, or a bespoke commission created with care, I’d love to help you find artwork that feels meaningful.

Closing Reflection

Scotland Offers Endless Beauty Just Waiting to Be Painted

Scotland’s landscapes stay with us whether it’s a misty glen, a shimmering loch at dusk, a windswept coast or the hush of a winter sky. These places hold memories, emotions and meaning.

When captured in paint, they become a piece of your story.