About Dougie

Artist and Illustrator Dougie Harley was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1985 and grew up in and around the historic village of Fettercairn at the foot of the Grampian mountains.
Now based in Edinburgh, be it using his passion for nature, the surrounding architecture, or his witty insights into the world and people today, Harley's creativity is often evolving. Using watercolour, ink, charcoal, or digital collage, and a spontaneously erratic style, Harley's creations are an ever-developing artistic map of his own journey throughout the art world. 

On his popular starling murmuration pieces -

'Being from rural Scotland, I’ve grown up very attached to the outdoors and nature. Birds are a massive inspiration to me, during 'the pandemic' I found myself drawn more to using them as inspiration (maybe something to do with freedom). 

Murmurations are one of the most beautiful spectacles in the world and luckily for me, I find drawing them like therapy. I can just look up and use the sky itself for inspiration and to capture the movement of a Murmuration, I just let my imagination do the work. I never know what shape the Murmuration is going to take until I’ve finished - it often shifts and changes on the paper, a bit like the real thing.'