Martyn Bennett

These paintings were inspired by the music of Martyn Bennett which I often listen to. I was looking to paint other things and decided on one painting for each of his six albums (I often listen to them whilst painting anyway). I then added a portrait, a departure from my normal subject and I felt he was a deserving, but probably seldom painted, subject.

Martyn was an inventive piper, fiddle player, composer and producer who combined classical and jazz elements with traditional Scottish music and 90s dance beats, creating powerful and colourful compositions. He also created instrumental compositions for strings and small pipes.

Martyn Bennett - Martyn's first venture into electronica and cross-over music, released 1995. Represented by the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Isles and an icon from the cover.
Bothy Culture - Traditional and modern music combined once again, released 1997. Represented by a comet (CD shard) over Glenshiel (a sight which inspired the track Shputnik in Glenshiel) and a theme from the cover artwork.
Hardland - Scottish hardcore dance music on his own label Cuillin, released 2000. Represented by Britain's finest mountaineering challenge the Cuillin Ridge traverse, the painting shows the Coire Lagan section looking back to In Pinn, Sgurr na Banachdich and Sgurr na Ghreadaidh.
Glen Lyon (a song cycle) - A more traditional Gaelic recording released in 2002 and represented by a more traditional landscape featuring the Praying Hands at Glen Lyon.
Grit - Archive recordings in an electronic setting, his final CD recorded whilst very ill and released 2003. Represented by the trig point and view from a hill in the north of Mull which was the basis for the CD cover. The setting sun is formed from CD shards, which can be seen in a number of ways - simply as the sun, as the pieces of music drawn upon in the recording, a dancing figure...
Mackay's Memoirs - commissioned for the opening Scottish Parliament in 1999, this composition for pipes, clarsach and orchestra is based around the theme and first variation of the piobaireachd 'Lament For Mary MacLeod' and released posthumously in 2005. Represented by the parliament interior and a stone circle at the centre of the debating chamber.