Senja Bownes

Born 1968.

Senja's focus for life has always been the outdoors. After spending a childhood in Pembrokeshire and the English Lake District, she moved to Scotland to study in 1986 and has lived there ever since.

Based in Edinburgh, she has attended numerous courses at Edinburgh College of Art, most recently developing her oil painting skills. Senja enjoys the challenge of painting whilst raising a young family and has recently begun to exhibit her work. Both her watercolours and oils have been very well received.

Her passion for wild places - a dramatic downpour in the mountains, a winter surf in the stormy Atlantic or a gentle paddle on a Scottish loch are all evident in her work. Her rafting journeys down the Zambezi in Africa and the Grand Canyon in the USA are also a major influence, reflected in the scale and drama of many of her pieces.

Senja's art is inspired by her experiences and feelings of the places she loves:

When I enjoy a painting, it is because I wish to be there, or remember how it felt.