Rosanne Barr

As has been clear these past rain-soaked weeks of our Scottish summer, the sky plays a large part in all our lives. For Rosanne Barr, who has been establishing herself as a landscape artist of great promise in the past few years, it's become the key player in her work.

Barr, who grew up in Gartocharn, Stirlingshire, and now lives just outside Dundee, is still in her twenties, yet has developed a sureness of style that has gained her a growing army of fans. Though she was a finalist for this year's Jolomo Awards, her scenes are not site-specific. You won't find her skies sheltering land-marks such as the Cuillins or Buachaille Etive more and there are no small white cottages sitting on a familiar foreshore.

Tightly composed and hugely atmospheric, there is also a very pure sense of colour in Barr's work, which has benefited in this new series from a shift into oil, straight from the tube so as not to muddy the waters.

Seven radically different Scottish artists were shortlisted yesterday for the biggest privately funded art prize in Britain.

The nominations for the Jomolo Awards for landscape painting ranged from a 22 year old fresh from college to a 49 year old who developed a passion for the outdoors on sketching trips with his father.