Scottish Highlands-based professional Fine Artist & Author, Paul Taggart has a passion for painting - his life's work - with more than thirty five years as a practising Professional Fine Artist to his name. Having regularly exhibited in commercial and public galleries in his earlier years, he turned to private sales some twenty years ago and enjoys a dedicated following.
for his principal selling collection, mainly comprising paintings in oil; Taggart specialises in traditional techniques that exploit a range of processes.
"Whilst I have developed my own method of working, the 'craft' of my painting owes everything to a repertoire of processes rooted in an established heritage of traditional methods. Without the specialist knowledge passed down from artists through the centuries, it would not be possible for me to work in the style that I have carefully nurtured and developed over my professional life as an artist.
It is a method that requires an unhurried approach, with each oil painting built layer upon layer, to capture the very heart of the subject. I use a complex range of bold and subtle heritage techniques to create depth, in order to produce a seemingly three-dimensional space filled with light, space, mood and movement.
There is nothing to surpass the sheer richness of oil painting. In oil painting we have a medium that can be opaque or transparent; thick or thin in its application; where the surface of the painting, being physical, affects light falling on it. The use of traditional techniques such as glazing and tinting, enriches and enhances the surface quality of the paint and I use these traditional techniques extensively to achieve the quality I seek.
My goal - to capture the very essence of a moment in time - one that will evoke a memory, or an emotional reaction."
For his various Masterworks collections, Paul Taggart has traditionally worked on dedicated projects that focus on his signature feature -
the importance of light and its influence within a composition.
His work covers a wide variety of genre, including landscapes, figurative pieces, conversation works and most especially, 'living studies'. Working in collections, he has, amongst other projects, chronicled the changing face of cityscapes and portrayed five years in the life of a young people's theatre company - most recently capturing the nature of Highland life and its traditions.
Art Workshop with Paul Taggart
Paul's enthusiasm for painting and for others enjoying it as a pursuit is reflected in his popularity as a tutor. He hosts art courses, workshops, paintings weekends and painting holidays. Having developed a step-by-step method of teaching, through fully narrated demonstrations, these were translated into the published word in the form of unique 'artstrips©' the basis of Paul's fourteen books and published tutorials on the subject of learning to paint.
