"landscapes captured through his film photography, which he reduces and reframes around moments of illumination by reflection on waters."
Growing up in Scotland, Yates became attuned to rapidly changing weather and brief shifts in brightness. Glisk, a Scottish word describing a fleeting moment of light or brightness, has become an important reference within his practice.
Working with oil paint and natural earth pigments, he removes, and softens layers with a multitude of tools and techniques until the original image gives way to something less certain. Larger landscapes are distilled into their illuminated fragments, allowing light to become both subject and structure. Grainy and atmospheric, the paintings hover between a photographed place and the memory of having experienced it.