Fiona MacDonald Holt is a contemporary painter working between landscape, memory and abstraction.

Inspired by coastal environments and shifting light, particularly those connected to Scotland and the Hebrides, her paintings explore atmosphere, erosion and the emotional resonance of place. Beginning with observation, the work gradually dissolves through layering, scraping, veiling and partial erasure.

Horizons, vessels, reflections and fragments of light recur throughout the paintings — not as fixed objects, but as traces or remembered forms. Surfaces are built slowly through repeated layering and reduction, allowing earlier marks and colours to remain partially visible beneath the surface. This process creates a sense of atmosphere and time, echoing the effects of weather, mist and changing coastal light.

Muted sea greens, chalk whites, deep blues and submerged earth tones move between landscape and interior space, creating connections between shoreline, harbour, still life and memory. While some works remain rooted in landscape, others move towards a more atmospheric and abstract language, where forms soften and boundaries dissolve.

Rather than describing a specific place, the paintings attempt to evoke the experience of remembering a place — familiar, shifting and deliberately unresolved.

Born in the North East of England, Fiona studied Fine Art at Staffordshire University following a foundation in Art & Design at Jacob Kramer College of Art, Leeds. After a career in design and publishing, she returned to painting full time and now exhibits throughout Scotland and the UK.