At Island Blue, our mission is to capture these transforming moments and create images that reflect our passion. Our desire is to share the harmony and pleasure that natural colours give us.
Over the last 30 years as Island Blue, we have come to be recognised as having a distinctive vision that has been shaped by a singular passion – a love for the natural colours of life. Island Blue publish a distinctive range of graphic calendars featuring the work of JOLOMO, Anthony Barber, Elspeth Gardner, Perkins & Morley and photographic calendars by Laurie Campbell, Martin Guppy, & Bernie Keating.
Martin Guppy, Founder of Island Blue and photographer
Anthony Barber
Anthony J Barber was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1962. He studied Architecture and Design to Post Graduate level in West Yorkshire. During this time he sketched and painted both in Yorkshire and on Scotland’s West Coast and Islands. In 1994 he moved to the Isle of Lewis.
He now paints full time, working in his studio gallery, just above the harbour and beach, in the village of Port Of Ness. Anthony’s work is based primarily on the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, particularly the West Coast and Hebrides.
His original works can be seen at the Harbour View Gallery, Port of Ness, Isle of Lewis and in a number of U.K galleries. Including the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) exhibition at the National Gallery for Scotland, Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.
He also supplies prints and greeting cards to shops and galleries throughout the U.K. His original paintings are in private collections in the U.K, Europe, U.S.A and Australia.
Anthony J Barber was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1962. He studied Architecture and Design to Post Graduate level in West Yorkshire. During this time he sketched and painted both in Yorkshire and on Scotland’s West Coast and Islands. In 1994 he moved to the Isle of Lewis.
He now paints full time, working in his studio gallery, just above the harbour and beach, in the village of Port Of Ness. Anthony’s work is based primarily on the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, particularly the West Coast and Hebrides.
His original works can be seen at the Harbour View Gallery, Port of Ness, Isle of Lewis and in a number of U.K galleries. Including the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) exhibition at the National Gallery for Scotland, Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.
He also supplies prints and greeting cards to shops and galleries throughout the U.K. His original paintings are in private collections in the U.K, Europe, U.S.A and Australia.
Anthony Barber
Jolomo
The passion John has for painting comes through his work. His love of life reflects itself in the boldness of colour. For me as a photographer and publisher what matters most is capturing the feeling of the subject, this John does, turning into the emotion of the landscape, in particular, the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Jolomo
John’s paintings have all the passion and feeling exuding out of them that capture that moment in time of special quality of light. It’s a real celebration of colour. Colour not for thefaint hearted, it explodes off the canvas daring to igniteand touch your soul and sense. There is a real sense of beauty in viewing a painting on a daily basis, and experiencing many and varied feelings from it. John’s work has the quality within it. Knowing the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as intimately as John does gives an artist a freedom of being able to relax into the humourof people and landscape. With such beauty to be found in humour, what better combination to achieve in a painting than a joyful smile! John donates a percentage of his sales to charity and makes significant donations of art work to charity each year. In November 2012, John and his wife Maureen were invited by HRH The Princess Royal to become Vice Presidents of Carers Trust.
From 2005 John established The Jolomo Foundation, a charitable body aimed at promoting and encouraging the painting of the Scottish landscape. The Jolomo Awards are the largest privately funded art awards of their kind in the UK. In November 2008 John was presented with an Honorary Doctoratefrom the University of the West of Scotland and in November 2009he received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Abertay Dundee University, for “A significant contribution to Scottish culture”. In the 2011 New Year’s Honours List John received an OBE for services to art and to charity in Scotland. John was awarded the London Great Scot Lifetime AchievementAward at The Savoy Hotel in London in November 2017. The first recipient in 2013 was Sir Andy Murray, in subsequent years winnersof the award have been Nicola Benedetti, Sam Torrance and Jamie Murray. John commented “It is a great honour to follow in their footsteps”a sentiment I am sure we can all wholeheartedly echo.
Laurie Campbell
With a life-long interest in the natural world and as a self-taught naturalist,
Laurie Campbell has dedicated almost fifty years to photographing Scotland’s
distinctive wildlife, flora and landscape. After graduating with a degree in photography at Napier University in Edinburgh in the early 1980's, he began his career as arguably Scotland’s first full-time, independent professional nature photographer.
Jolomo
His imagery is published across a range of media internationally and is widely recognised for its distinctive style. Despite having produced and illustrated numerous books and winning competition awards, his most treasured accolade to date was to be voted for inclusion in ‘Highland Naturalists’ an exhibition featuring thirty people from the past 300 years whose work has significantly contributed to the understanding and enjoyment of the natural history in the Scottish Highlands.
Similarly, in 2014 he was honoured with a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' in the RSPB Nature of Scotland Awards in recognition of the lasting contribution his photography has made to conservation in Scotland.