Chalmers Smith retired in 2013 after almost 40 years of teaching, most of it spent taking children and young people to learn outdoors.

"I have always had a strong interest in photography and art. The idiosyncrasies of the Scottish education system in the 1960s meant that, from the age of 14, I had to study French instead of Art by dint of one mark!
I applied for an introductory drawing and painting course at Leith School of Art in the autumn of 2013 and was very fortunate to find myself in a lovely class of eclectic, interesting people and have a wonderful tutor. The one term trial extended into years and, as Alexei Sayle once correctly observed, 'as one door closes another opens'.
Further courses were undertaken at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Edinburgh Printmakers, Paintbox School of Art, the National Gallery, Stills Gallery and Bridge House Art.
Having lost (especially in the last 20 years) a few close friends, family and colleagues to a range of illnesses and/or accidents, I feel extremely privileged to still be submersed in all this knowledge and support which has guided and developed my work through the most fantastic and immensely enjoyable and ongoing artistic journey............"

clachag is one of the words in Scots Gaelic which means pebble or small stone

Image courtesy of Alisdair Mclean [Tyninghame, East Lothian, 1985]