Alasdair Lindsay

Alasdair Lindsay: “I have lived in Cornwall for twenty years, originally coming down from Chester to do a fine art degree at Falmouth College of Art.

Many of my Cornish paintings study the areas where sea meets land. I am drawn to the water – surfing, sea swimming and sailing all giving new perspectives, and for me an important part of enjoying life in Cornwall. Another perspective is viewing the landscape from above; inspired when I was young by seeing Peter Lanyon’s paintings . The grid like forms of aerial landscape and long, narrative shadows have also struck a chord with my way of working. Over the last few years I have mainly been painting the Thames from above, along with aerial subjects closer to home.”

Alasdair Lindsay was born in Cheshire in 1975. He came to Cornwall in 1996 to study at Falmouth College of Art and has remained ever since.

His paintings are based on what he sees everyday. He studies these places regularly and sometimes sketches on site, although Alasdair will usually paint from memory and through experimentation. His studio work is down to decisions based on instinct rather than theory. Often the subject of his paintings becomes secondary to the emerging pattern of abstract areas, which he says, must be evaluated and perhaps edited for the sake of the overall composition.

Alasdair’s paintings have been garnering increasing acclaim since 2002 when he was commissioned to produce 12 paintings and 312 prints of those paintings for permanent display on the luxury Cunard Line Queen Mary II.

In 2004 he won 2nd prize in the prestigious Hunting Art Prize and was also selected to exhibit in the Hunting Art Prize in 2000, 2004 and 2005. In 2007 his work was exhibited in the Singer Freidlander Sunday Times Watercolour Competition at Mall Galleries, London.

In 2012 he produced a number of aerial view paintings of bridges across The Thames in London after chartering a helicopter to provide source material for the project. Cornwall Contemporary staged the subsequent exhibition of the paintings in Shoreditch, London which was an incredibly successful show and Alasdair continues to be inspired by aerial views of cornwall and cities. 

The hardback book ‘Shorelines’ about Alasdair’s life and work was published in 2017.