James Hawkins Landscape Artist

03/06/2026

Achmore, that May evening.

For 48 years we’ve looked west toward the Achmore peninsula, always seeing it as a flat, featureless silhouette with a straight, unbroken shoreline. But one evening in mid May, with the sun swung far to the north and skeins of rain drifting in from the west, everything changed. The northern sidelight caught the land just so, and the peninsula revealed itself at last—layered hills receding into soft greys, and a shoreline delicately indented, as if the whole landscape had stepped forward from behind a curtain.

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk
Rhueart Gallery IV26 2TJ

20/04/2026

We spent a few February days in Tomich, marking Flick’s birthday and searching out fresh inspiration for new paintings. Our walks carried us along parts of St Duthac’s Way, high above Glen Affric. St Duthac (1000–1065), Bishop of Ross and Patron Saint of Tain, was famed not only for his spiritual influence but for the sheer distances he travelled, from Glenshiel on the western seaboard to St Andrews on the east. Glen Affric itself has been undergoing restoration since 1951, with large-scale planting aimed at bringing back the original Caledonian pine forest. This is the drawing James has done on which the new paintings are based.

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk

17/03/2026

An Teallach from the Fairy Lochan Winter 2026

We walked up above the Fain; the day was bright in that hard winter way, the light clear and almost colourless. Ahead, An Teallach lay under the low sun, its slopes marked by long, slanting shadows that stretched across the mountain . Frost sparkled on the ground, crisp underfoot; Lochan an t‑Sìdhein—the loch of the fairy hill—was frozen, its surface matte and opaque. No movement, no sound. The ice diffused the light while the mountain gathered the shadows, giving the place a quiet, suspended feel, making the day quite beyond the ordinary.

James has just put some of the new winter work up on the website.
Click here

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk

Ross

A graduate of the Ruskin School of Drawing, James Hawkins has been painting the Scottish landscape in Rhue, Ullapool for over 40 years now.

04/02/2026

Flick and I first recognised the value of phone masts as vantage points while researching the Great Glen commission for Inverness Airport. After an unproductive morning along the muted, wintry shore on the south side of Loch Ness, we climbed through fresh snow to the large mast above Fort Augustus. From its summit the land unfurled around us—an immense sweep of Scotland stretching from the east coast to the far western edge.
On our journeys back from Gruinard and the South. I had often noticed the humbler mast above the west end of Little Loch Broom, a quiet sentinel overlooking the water. We finally made the ascent in early December. The air was sharp, the light brittle, and from the top we were met with a breath-taking vision of Fisherfield stretched out in a broad, intricate tangle of ridges and corries—remote, austere, and strikingly clear in the cold afternoon light.

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk

Ross

22/01/2026

Frequent trips to Delilah’s, our son’s restaurant in Lochinver, always take us along the stunning shore of Loch Assynt — a journey that inevitably sparked a new painting project. It began in winter with snow and a quiet, minimal palette, then slowly shifted as the seasons changed, gathering colour and life. This latest piece captures Conival from the north side of the loch, celebrating the mountain in all its late summer glory.

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk
www.delilahs.co.uk

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26/11/2025

James Hawkins’ new painting captures Altandhu, Loch Broom as summer fades — dark skies gathering south, the land and water steady beneath the season’s change.

www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk

15/08/2025

A new drawing of the western flanks of An Teallach from the road to Slaggan. The beginnings of a new project?

https://www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk/art_type/drawings/

04/08/2025

A graduate of the Ruskin School of Drawing, James Hawkins has been painting the Scottish landscape in Rhue, Ullapool for over 40 years now.

04/08/2025

A long dry spring in the Highlands has moved the seasons forward slightly, the colours on the hill seem more distinct, especially the greens, and already the rowan berries are red and the bracken turning in places. A commission to paint Conival developed into a project with add-ons focusing on this heightened summer palette.

Rhueart gallery. Open studio and exhibition space of James Hawkins. Considered one of the best contemporary landscape painters in Scotland.

https://www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk/current-work/

Scotland

A graduate of the Ruskin School of Drawing, James Hawkins has been painting the Scottish landscape in Rhue, Ullapool for over 40 years now.

04/08/2025

A long dry spring in the Highlands has moved the seasons forward slightly, the colours on the hill seem more distinct, especially the greens, and already the rowan berries are red and the bracken turning in places. A commission to paint Conival developed into a project with add-ons focusing on this heightened summer palette.

Rhueart gallery. Open studio and exhibition space of James Hawkins. Considered one of the best contemporary landscape painters in Scotland.

https://www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk/current-work/

Scotland