During his twelve-month residency at Highgreen, Thomas Donaldson explored both the small details of everyday rural life and the larger features that define the Northumbrian landscape. He paid attention to objects often overlooked—such as a pair of work boots left on a doorstep—as well as the sheep, dry stone walls, trees, snow and sky that form the backdrop to life in the fells.
Thomas’s paintings reflect his delight in the act of painting itself: the energy of mark-making, the play of pure colour, and the experimentation with surface. His approach is irreverent and playful. He sometimes leaves works outdoors to be altered by the weather, allowing chance to become part of the creative process. In other works, fluorescent paint transforms familiar pastoral scenes: cows in a field appear conventional by day, but only reveal themselves fully in the dark. Through such experiments, Thomas encourages viewers to look anew at the familiar, while also questioning long-held assumptions about what fine art painting should be.
Alongside his painting, Thomas worked with digitally manipulated photographs that, like his canvases, drew attention to overlooked qualities in ordinary objects. Sheep were given a soft, wispy presence, dissolving almost into the sky around them. A barn door or bucket might be rendered in heightened colour, shifting attention to the extraordinary within the everyday. His works both celebrated and reimagined the landscapes and objects of Northumberland.
Community engagement formed an important strand of his residency. At Humshaugh First School he collaborated with a teacher to devise a project in which children walked through their village with cameras, recording the overlooked details of their surroundings. These photographs were later developed, scanned, and transformed into outline images for painting. The result was a series of large, vibrant works that now hang in the school hall.
Thomas also welcomed groups to Highgreen. He hosted a three-day intensive residential workshop for first-year Fine Art students from Newcastle University. The students used the time to gather material through cameras, sketchbooks and recording equipment, generating resources that fed into their university work. Later, a class of thirty pupils from St Charles RC First School in inner-city Newcastle spent a full day at Highgreen. For many of the children, the experience of exploring the rural environment through creative activity with Thomas proved both memorable and inspiring.
