Golden Days

It seems that we've just hit a spell of good weather up here.  Sunny crisp days.  The hills and summits are so clear.  Had a bit of a hillwalk in Strathcarron yesterday and today I had to run over to Torridon to deliver some calendars, so I took the opportunity to do a bit of sketching.

At this time of year, the grasses are wonderful shades of orange and ochre, and the deer grass has sent out its delicate long stems.  Here's the sketch I did yesterday on a walk in the Strathcarron hills above Achintee. I was trying to get the pattern of the shadows on the hillside, shadows cast by the rocky outcrops. And the lochan kept changing colour as the wind changed. I was able to take a bit of time as it was warm enough and I was quite pleased with this.

Today was similar.  The hills were clearer than ever but there was a cold wind blowing.The shore of Upper Loch Torridon looked cold, in shadow.

Then on through Glen Torridon, stopping for a sketch of Liathach. We stopped at the second car park where there is a stand of pine trees. By this time there was a small cloud sitting on top of Liathach which I was viewing from the east.

On our way back I had time for another sketch of Liathach, a view from the south this time. We walked a bit along the lochside path and I spied a good view with a host of Torridon pines in the shade in front of the hills.

And as a wee extra, Beinn Damh was catching some intense light with interesting shadows so I did a last quick sketch before I headed home.

Lots of material for a few paintings, but this lovely weather is very distracting!

Hand Made

Difficult times. I've had a thumb/wrist problem - De Quervain's tendonitis to be precise - and this has hampered my painting and printmaking. I so need my right hand! However, this week it's been a little better and I've been trying to get back into a bit of painting.
I started on Sunday with a couple of sketches. I drove up the Bealach road, not too far, just high enough to get a good view of the ridge. And then found a space where I could pull off the road safely.  I walked up the hill a bit and did these two sketches in pastel.  I particularly liked the bright yellow grasses bending in the fierce wind and looking bright in front of the hills behind.

Since then I've tried to develop these into paintings.  Making a start on the first sketch, I paused at this point

It's so interesting to look at this again. I now see things in this composition that I've lost going forward....look

The shape of the hill on the left - I've inadvertantly altered the angle and it's lost some tension. But maybe it's not too bad...

In this development, I've adjusted the height of the ridge and softened the dark patch on the right hand side - I didn't think it looked appropriate. But the shape of the hill on the left has got worse! I was also a bit unhappy with the colour - looked a bit washed out! More work needed.

Today I have done this - I think it's looking better. The darkness of the hill is much better, more drama. I've slightly amended the yellow grasses and added more foreground marks. I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about the marks to make to represent the grasses and other vegetation. And I dropped the height of the far-away ridge - I painted it out in a blue-white which I didn't really intend to be the finished colour, but actually I quite like it!  Interesting! It may remain...we'll see.

Painting the other view has been less successful. Here's the start - very loose and rather nice.

But then I did this.  Added lots more marks. Good and bad.

I had gone back to the sketch to check tonal values, and so made the ridge a bit darker, and tried to divide up the foreground to make it read well, all the time thinking about marks.  I took this approach a little further.

Does it feel like a hillside to you? I think it's getting there, but those rocks are bad! Maybe I just need to darken them down. Or maybe dispense with them!  I'm quite liking the sky, though, and the hilltops, so I think it's worth a bit more effort next week.

And maybe some more sketching tomorrow if we get a blink of sun...


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The Story of the Tree

As some of you may know, I've recently done a print - a photopolymer gravure to be precise - of a Scots Pine tree, and I've been lucky enough to get it selected for the current open exhibition of Visual Arts Scotland 'FLY2016'.  I thought I would record what lies behind the picture.

If you drive along the road from Lochcarron to Shieldaig, you go through a forest of Scots Pines just before Shieldaig.  I can only assume this is an old native woodland, maybe even an ancient wood, and it stretches from the shores of Loch Dughaill up the slopes of Ben Shieldaig.  It is lovely to drive through, and I'm always happy if I have to linger in a passing place there.  It is difficult to draw off the road, but you can find a spot.

We did stop one time, and I chanced upon a tree with character and ended up reaching for my sketch book.  Here's a photo of the tree in question.

As you know, the image captured in a photo is a distortion of the real thing, as is a sketch. But I think you can see a similarity between the two.  Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but then Matisse did advise 'Exaggerate in the direction of truth'. I also realised that I'd have to draw the tree over two pages in my sketch book to try and describe the crookedness of its character.  I think I used graphite and pencil on this sketch.

I never quite know what I'm going to do with my sketches.  Initially with this one I did nothing.  This tree has such a strong character.  Would it be suitable as the main motif in a painting?  I suppose I shied away from that as I thought it would be too dominant.

And then a few months later I was looking through my sketchbook for ideas for making new photopolymer plates.  I'm trying to do a few smaller plates in order to have cheaper prints to sell.  Anyway, I thought this might make a good picture, and re-drew it in ink on a type of transparent film (MMR film).  This is the drawing.  You can see the edges of the film which is lying on top of paper.

Finally, after exposing this on to photo-sensitive polymer plate (using a lightbox), I ended up with a type of 'etched' plate (but it's not strictly 'etched' as it doesn't go into a bath of acid to create the lines to hold the ink: that's done through a photographic development process: sometimes this process is sometimes called 'solarplate').  The final print which I pulled off the plate is looking like this - it's quite true to the final drawing I made.

So that's the story behind the 'Shieldaig Pine'.  The print is hiding away in one of the back rooms of the VAS exhibition at the RSA until 27th December 2016.  See if you can track it down when you go along and please let me know what you think when you see it in the flesh!

Just a wee snippet of 'North Coast 500'

The big news in this neck of the woods is the success so far of 'North Coast 500' - the new name given to the roads following the coast around the north of Scotland. The route goes through Lochcarron, but this week Peter and I decided to head north for a few days to sample some different North Coast delights. And of course I took my sketch book with me.



On Tuesday we headed for the area around Kylesku and Scourie and the sun was shining its heart out. Now, I love the drama of the landscape around Kylesku but it was looking positively cheerful this time.  I would have preferred a little more moodiness, but that's no excuse!  And anyway Quinag and the other nearby hills still provide a dramatic backdrop.

Here's my initial sketch of Quinag from Kylesku. I hadn't realised how much it dominates the local landscape. Feel so smug to have climbed it already - well...two of the three tops. Great to see it in its proper context. Must go back and do that top that I missed out!  Next time....

Sitting in the same spot, I did this quick sketch looking up Loch Gleann Dubh. A bit featureless, but I really wanted an accurate contextual sketch for future reference.

Then we went across to Kylestrome and I sketched a panoramic sitting on the shore, looking back south over Kylesku and Loch Glencoul towards what I now think must be the Stack of Glencoul.It's such an iconic little top.

Further north, we found ourselves at Badcall Bay - it wasn't bad at all really (haha).  An array of pretty little islands.  The outlook from Upper Badcall is quite lovely, but lower down the islands look better, I think, against the backdrop of the Drumbeg and Stoer peninsula.  Very sheltered and somewhat midgy.

On Wednesday we wanted to climb something and luckily it was not so hot and sunny.  Ben Stack beckoned. We took the eastern route - the long way up - and were rewarded by some fine easterly views, like this one, looking down Loch More and the smaller loch in front, Loch nan Ealachan. They were interesting views with cloud waterfalls coming over a few of the cols as the day started to warm up a little.

It was a bit gloomy on Wednesday, so my sketch of Foinaven and Arkle from the summit of Ben Stack is somewhat lacking in brightness and hasn't really captured the essence of these stark and chunky hills. But it was worth a try.

The sun was back on Thursday and we were on the road coming south again, but to Achiltibuie, stopping for sketches and photos. Drumbeg was the first stop for a sketch - the view back to Badcall and Eddrachillis Bay, Handa Island in the far distance.

Clashnessie was the next sketching stop. Had to be a colour sketch here, but I found the pastels a bit frustrating for capturing the intensity of the colours. Maybe I was just being too hesitant in using them.

After Lochinver, I couldn't resist getting the watercolours out when I saw this view. There's a lovely spot on the road where you can see Stac Pollaidh, Cul Beag and Cul Mor all lined up, but I couldn't fit them all on the sketch, despite the fact I used a large piece of paper.  I'll leave you to guess which of the hills I've depicted here....

Finally, after so many stops, we arrived at Achiltibuie in glorious sunshine. Only managed one small sketch of the Summer Isles - hard to do them justice on such a perfect, lovely day. I do want to return and spend more time drawing and painting in and around there.  One day soon, I hope. Maybe in winter?

Friday we came home, but we did manage a short walk before we got to Ullapool, down to an old fort, Dun Canna, now reduced to a large pile of boulders. This is, however, a fantastically exposed viewpoint where you can look southwest over the sea towards An Teallach and the surrounding hills, and so that was the obvious subject of my last sketch - trying hard to get the right tonal values.

This was a great wee break and I'm so glad to have gathered a few sketches. I'm hoping that this will re-energise my painting efforts as well as providing some material for new prints.  Time to get down to work!