One of the most distinctive aspects of the show is the selective focusing. The garden world (photographed at the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh) flickers in and out of scenes of lush and heavy forest to singular images of flame-like forms, many white, innocence and purity in an apparent shadow land. Through the lens the plants and trees take on sculptural properties, sensuous curves and transparency. The voice of the images settles in the mind of the viewer. Silence enfolds, embraces and cradles the delicate forms.

The Butterfly combines both poetry and imagery and is a reflective study of the fragility and finality of death. Man and the natural world. Mackay works on a personal level, reflecting the death of a friend who died of cancer at an early age. His friend’s abstract portrait lingers in many of the images in the form of a wisp like energy. The artist communicating his own loss and helplessness he writes ‘ Of the shadows where the eyes leak, in the dawning when the heart will break’. Droplets of water titter on the verge of dropping from the tip of the leaf, indicating the precariousness of life. In another large lily pads form multi cell like structures, overtones of strength and stability are meshed with the knowledge of potential mutational change, the fragility of the eco system-the fragility of the human body. A silkened leaf, it’s form as like water, ‘With the leaf still visible on the glow, I leave to go back to the source’- the spiritual journey, the flow of being.

The majority of the work is in monochrome, but colour splashes into the magical scene. Green’s vibrate and the fish red and orange, scream the ongoing vitality of life, the lushness and re-growth (generation). The artist inspiring and focusing on his own optimism for the future, the enjoyment of the moment. With great purpose he celebrates life and the memories of those he has lost. The Butterfly collection reminds us as the artist reiterates ‘love and be loved’.