Lochcarron Days Again

Happy to be up in Lochcarron again, and getting some time for sketching and working on pictures.  I need to get a few more pictures ready for the join exhibition Rona and I are hosting in March.  But I'm not in a panic yet.

Lovely days on Monday and Tuesday this week and I managed to get some sketching done.  On Monday we walked up the hill above Achintee and arrived at a frozen lochan.  We remembered from a previous walk that you get a great view looking north from the lochan and it was warm enough to sketch (just!).

Frozen lochan sketch.

It was so bright that I didn't hesitate to do a colour sketch using chalk pastels.  I wanted particularly to try and capture the frozen-ness of the lochan - not easy (for me) to get the colour quite right.
On Tuesday we went down to Drumbuie for a coastal walk.  Again it was gloriously sunny, so I did some pastel sketches.

But now it's turned gloomy.  I'm back to snatching sketches in ink and charcoal, dodging the raindrops.  The good side of this is that I've been indoors, working up from these sketches and from photographs.

Drumbuie shoreline study

Drumbuie shoreline work in progress

With this Drumbuie study, I started off making a quick colour study from a photo using inktense pencils - I quite like them - and then I got the acrylics out.  I think I need to go back and study the vegetation on the foreshore to get a bit of detail.  But it's a start...it's allowing me to get back into more serious work.  What's also helping is that I'm reading Jack Flamm's book "Matisse on Art".  Although it makes me feel somewhat inadequate, it also inspires me.  So much to think about!