The graphic designer/photographer shares his artful abstract shots

David Queenan finds incredible colours and textures that look like paintings

David Queenan

At first glance, David Queenan’s abstract photographs look like

modernist paintings. The deep blues marbled along the bottom of one image look as though they’ve been built up with layers of oil paint on a canvas. Contrasted with a crisp, uniform red line, you might wonder if the artist is making a statement with this precision. In another, indigo tree shapes appear like shadows against a deep, inky background, and are topped with verdigris fronds. In fact, these masterpieces are the hulls of fishing boats, captured on camera by chance.

“Being a graphic designer (as well as a photographer), I enjoy the creative process of finding abstract art in what some might regard as mundane objects,” David explains. “It can also be a good way of passing the time while waiting for the light to improve or if the weather isn’t great when out shooting landscapes.

“On one such occasion after getting up early to shoot the Forth bridges at sunrise, I was just about to head home when I spotted the boats at the nearby harbour had been taken out of the water for winter maintenance. This provided me with an opportunity to get up close to the hulls with their peeling paintwork. I particularly liked the contrast of bright colours and the more distressed and textured areas on the boats.”

David is best known for his landscape photography, having won the 2015 Scottish Nature Photography Awards and also being successful in the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year 2016 and Landscape Photographer of the Year 2016. These abstracts and others on his website and Instagram feed show his graphic designer’s eye at work elsewhere, though.

Why not take inspiration from David and keep an eye open for the interesting textures, colours and patterns that are all around you? You’ll be amazed by what you come up with…