An Inspiring Start to The Year

 

This was going to be my January blog, but I'm a bit slow in posting.  I almost managed it!  

However, I've been quite busy (that's my excuse).

I wanted to have an experimental month in January.  Did I do this?  Well....I started off with good intentions but it was very, very cold in the studio and this sapped my resolve.  And then...before I embarked on any real work, I had a trip over to Inverness to see and hear Barbara Rae (recently made a Dame).  I've always liked her work, but I thought I had stupidly missed her exhibition.  However, my friend Susan (Bridge Art Collective colleague) gave me a lift over and we went to meet her and listen to her lovely impromptu talk. She talked about how she paints in places familiar to her – mainly the Lammermuirs, County Mayo in Ireland and Spain – and she returns again and again to these same places. I found this interesting as it chimes with the words of Matisse (if I remember correctly) who talked about walking and painting the same place over and over again in order to get to the essence of a place. Because Barbara paints in these distinct places, her palette changes to reflect the location, and you can discern this in her work. She also explained her processes, and how she makes monotypes to help her focus on the essentials of a scene and work out a composition. I could go on.  As my friend Jacqueline said, Barbara is generous with her insights.  A lot of us who went along to Inverness Museum and Art Gallery found the afternoon inspirational.

So, having been inspired, when I got back into the (cold) studio, I decided to make a few more monotypes before I did anything else– here are a couple.

And then, it was back to my desire to do some experimenting.  I made some (rabbitskin) size first of all.  Then, to some of it, I added chalk, then pigment. To another dollop of size, I added ash from my woodburning stove, then chalk and pigment. The wood ash made me reflect on the awful fires in California - how devastating! Climate change continues (what a surprise)!  

Anyway, the woodash mix gave me a very uneven, granular medium which I painted onto paper making a textured surface.  I then painted on this surface with acrylics. Taking the Barbara Rae approach, I should have used my monotypes as a springboard for a composition or two, but when I looked in my sketchbooks, all I could see were Hillponds.So that was what I started....

Looking at this photo now, I feel that it gives a misleading impression of the actuality.  What was emerging was too messy, too colourful (Fuar Tholl was too pinky!) and it wasn't working for me.  Should I have carried on?  I don't know now....but, well, I did!  

First of all I tried painting another version of this....a slightly different size of paper, and no texture.  Just acrylic and a bit of medium.  I thought the colours had a bit more subtlety that my textured version, and the middleground was less shouty.  So it gave me guidance for what to do next.

 

I've been at it for the rest of the month, backwards and forwards, sandpaper, craft knives, paint. And this is where I got to.  I am happier with this, with its focus on the mossy mounds in the foreground (and those colourful mounds drew me in in the first place), but, well .... it's different from my first pass.

Of course, January was a beautiful month for snow and ice. It was a huge distraction - I was always going out for a bit of a walk in the snow.  Eventually...when the forecast predicted that it was about to disappear....I thought that I must go out NOW and do a few sketches - but snow is so difficult!

 

First just down on the shore (one of several).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then round at Loch an Loin (one of several). 

It was so beautiful at Loch an Loin - the beauty of it just made me cry! - so I went on to do this painting....

 Have I managed to capture it?  Who knows. And now the snow has gone, even almost gone from the tops, so I'll be back to colourful landscapes this month...maybe! 

 

Trees, Trees, Trees

 Time has passed me by again - I see it's almost 2 months since I last blogged.  But that doesn't mean I've not been busy.  Just life getting in the way of art.

My main focus since January has been on trees. In the course of deciding what to paint for "Our Fragile Land" (forthcoming exhibition at Gairloch Museum) I became aware that the small pockets of woodlands in the Wester Ross Biosphere area are remnants of much larger native woodlands and oakwoods that once made up the temperate rainforest on the west coast of Scotland.  It's interesting because once you are aware of this, then you start to see remnant oaktrees and stands of Scots Pines all over the place!  

I was curious about the Balmacara Oakwoods and in 2023 I made a small expedition to track them down and go sketching there. They sit high above the main road (the A87) on a 45 degree slope, and on my first trip in late Spring I was quite blown away when I found them.  I returned a couple of times last year and spent a while painting this one in oils.

I continued painting the oaktrees, trying different motifs in different media. Here's one in acrylic - quite a  large painting on paper.  What I was trying to capture was the sturdiness of the limbs and the colours in the trunk and limbs - they are so dominant, they kind of engulf you.

Anyway...I have continued to paint the trees, mostly in acrylic, and this month I came up with this new painting.  Again it's acrylic on paper, with a little ink added. I did this one from sketches and photos as I had not been back there for a while.  Having done a few of these oak paintings (too many to show here!), I now find that I can be a little more playful, less realistic, in my approach.

I really wanted to get back to the oakwood over the winter, or at least before the leaves reappear.  And finally, in the last couple of days, I managed to get back to there to sketch - here's a wintery pastel sketch from the oakwood this week.

As I thought, the colours were quite different: the outside world intrudes much more into the woodland scene.  However, the limbs of the oak trees are just as dominant and impressive.  It's a great place!

So now maybe I'll have to select a different palette and try another painting.  In the meantime, I'll be getting a few of these framed and ready for the exhibition in Gairloch in May!

Getting Off To A Good Start

Happy New Year!

I started this blog in December, but didn't finish it.  Must do better in 2024!

My focus this year is to get a body of work finished and framed for the start of May.  I'm doing an exhibition - "Our Fragile Land" - in Gairloch Museum.  The exhibition will be with three other artists, showing landscapes of the Wester Ross Biosphere.  I've been working up ideas for this for most of last year, off and on, and I realise that I now need to get my pieces finished very soon!

My starting point was a number of pieces I did based on sketches done at the Black Water at Silverbridge, near Garve (See earlier Blog).  Since then I've been thinking about other fragile landscapes.  Possibly the most fragile place within the Biosphere is the Beinn Eighe summit and plateau.  It was designated a National Nature Reserve many years ago, and it is one of the core areas of the Biosphere.  I had a walk up there in the summer and did a couple of sketches.  From these, I developed this oil painting.

 

Not sure if it's finished yet, though!

The other particularly fragile landscape in the Biosphere is the area of native woodland - oakwood - within the Balmacara Estate near Kyle of Lochalsh.  I've done a lot of sketching over there this year and I've been working on several paintings - oil and acrylic - all different shapes and compositions.

I've been particularly struck by the strong shapes (positive and negative shapes) made by the mature oak trees, and the way the foliage filters the light.  I've noticed how the limbs of the trees follow the contours of the slope - it seems to be a particular characteristic of oak trees, because I observe it with oak trees in other locations.  Anyway, here's quite a large oil painting.

 Painting woodland in this way has been something new for me.  I find I keep coming back to the motif, and trying it in different media.  Here's another interpretation, this time a smaller painting in acrylic, although it's not quite finished - I'm not happy about the shape of the tree on the left and I think the background needs a bit of finessing.  These ones are more like dancing trees (perhaps that should be in the title).

I've also been looking for appropriate quotes and reading books about trees and woodland.  I hope to write a bit more on the subject....but we'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, here are a couple of quotes to think about.

“Most of us walk unseeing through the world, unaware alike of its beauties, its wonders, and the strange and sometimes terrible intensity of the lives that are being lived about us.”
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

“If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” —Vincent Van Gogh,

So here we are at the start of 2024.  Sending good wishes to you for the year ahead if you manage to read this blog.  Let's all keep creative and positive this year!

Woodland Focus

Since my trip to Arnisdale, I've managed to get quite a bit of time in the studio and I've been trying to develop some pieces from the sketches (in preparation for my exhibition next year.)   I started with a couple of landscape scenes based on sketches in the previous blog....like this one.

Loch Hourn and the Small Isles

But I've been thinking more about the woodlands, the remnants of the rainforest. I must confess that over the years I've not thought much about woodlands – I've always been more of a hill person – and let's face it, native woodlands were not such a big thing in my youth. I feel as if I'm only now beginning to discover them, helped by going to meetings run by the Woodland Trust.

I made a start to working on a large painting of the woodland on the coastal path along the north side of Loch Hourn, the Herring Path, based on part of one of the sketches in the previous blog. I was thinking with this one that I didn't want to be too detailed - a slightly misty approach might work better.

Loch Hourn Woodlands 1

It's acrylic on paper - not finished yet, of course. I also tried a couple of smaller ones of the same woodland. I was focusing on how it felt sitting within the woodland, immersed in it. Not painting trees, but thinking about the patterns and textures of the woodland floor; positive and negative spaces. The calmness of trees. The fragility of these surviving trees. So much to think about – such a challenge!

Loch Hourn Woodlands 2

Loch Hourn Woodlands 3

 

After this, I ran out of steam a bit, and decided to go and find some oakwoods near home. I realised that a woodland would be a perfect sketching location in the relentless sunshine and heat we had earlier this month. Where to go? I decided to try the Balmacara estate and on my way back from Kyle one day, I parked in the layby where the path leads up to Loch Scalpaigh. I took the path into the oakwood there. What a place! I hadn't been there before and I was quite enchanted by it. Here are a couple of photos.

 

Of course, it felt a bit daunting to sketch there....how to capture the feel of such a place in a sketch? The dark majestic trees, strange positive and negative shapes, strong shadows, filtered light. And there were some surprising colours.

Oakwood Sketch

As the good weather continued, I returned to the oakwood a couple of times for more sketching and thinking.  Again, what was on my mind was how I felt so enveloped by the woodland and the beauty of the space.  Because of the robustness of the trees, it did feel quite different from the fragility of the Loch Hourn woodlands.Well, here's something that I've painted so far.....

Oakwood Summer

I have a few more unfinished woodland paintngs.  My question now is should I continue on the woodland theme, perhaps even finish a few paintings, or shall I have a change and tackle another aspect of the Biosphere?

A Week By Loch Hourn

 

I just had a week of walking and sketching at Arnisdale, on the shores of Loch Hourn. It wasn't many miles for me to travel, but it felt like a real change.  And we took the ferry at Kylerhea - the shortest route for us.  I decided to go there because it's within the Wester Ross Unesco Biosphere, and I'm trying to focus on the Biosphere as the main subject for my next body of work.  The most southerly point is actually in the middle of Knoydart.

View from Arnisdale to Knoydart

 

Arnisdale seems to me to be a special place. It lies at the foot of a very steep hill, crushed up against the sea, and looks out over Loch Hourn to Knoydart, one of the most remote areas of Scotland. The hill that overshadows it is the iconic Beinn Sgritheall, a rather isolated munro mountain...and a rather steep climb.

 

Glowering Beinn Sgritheall

I wimped out of climbing Beinn Sgritheall, but I did get up as far as some lovely lochans.  Here's one of the views I sketched of the hill viewed across the lochans.

 

Beinn Sgritheall (blue)

This one gives a better idea.  It's a lovely approach from the west, and not nearly so steep....!

Beinn Sgritheall 2

We stayed in a traditional cottage on the shore - great for weather-watching - we experienced a range of weathers, luckily mostly benign.   Strangely the outlook was similar to our view at home!  Just a bit more dramatic.

Looking west along Loch Hourn

Loch Hourn is a commanding presence.  Many of my sketches are of the Loch.  I did these two when we walked the Herring Path - a fascinating walk, if somewhat awkward in places.  The path is beautifully constructed in several places and is holding up despite a bit of erosion.  And you feel as if you're walking into the past as well as walking closer to Knoydart - almost within touching distance.

Loch Hourn's Little Isles

From the End of the Herring Path

Glen Arnisdale has another long-distance path which apparently was occasionally used in the past for motor-cycle racing (it's barely navigable by bike now).  We walked to the lochans in the glen on a very mature footpath (very steep in places).  I found it rather brooding - this sketch is a bit too bright!

Glen Arnisdale Lochan.

The woodlands were also rather fine.  The trees were mostly oak and birch - beautiful places to sit and sketch.  I think it's a remnant of our Temperate Rain Forest.  And the trees cling to the shore at the bottom of the steep hills.  It was a lovely time of year to go, with the trees just coming into leaf.

Woodland Paths

Woodland By The Shore

You can't go to this area without visiting Sandaig - where Gavin Maxwell once lived.  It is a beautiful spot and we caught it on a lovely day.  The white sand and the rocks reminded me of Iona.  

From above it looks so beautiful too....a most unusual place.

View of Sandaig, with Skye in the Distance

This part of the Biosphere has a pronounced coastal influence - it's everywhere you go.  I hadn't expected to feel such a sense of history – the Herring Path and Glen Arnisdale path feel so old and well-trodden.  Someone kindly lent us a book "Arnisdale and Loch Hourn" which records a past way of life in the area in an engagingly anecdotal way, with lots of old photographs.  Peter English collected the old stories and local lore and compiled the archive.  And the Ceilidh House at Corran has an interesting set of historical interpretation boards.

 

Loch Hourn From The Slopes of Beinn Sgreathill

What I have taken away from the week is how Arnisdale and environs have such a feel of rugged remoteness and fragility.  Knoydart casts a shadow of enchantment - it's so massive, hardly anyone lives there and it feels unreachable.  And, for an artist, Arnisdale bay has great light and interesting clouds as the weather systems move in and move away.  I think I'll have to return.

Working Hard In January

Full of New Year resolutions, I've tried to do a sketch every day this month, and I've tried to get into the studio too.  I've been at home for the whole of January, so no excuses! Despite spending so much uninterrupted time working, I'm not sure if the results are as good as I would like.  As we know, time spent in the studio does not always produce great results, but I'd like to think my time has not been wasted.

 I thought I would use this blog to reflect on some work done in the studio and let you judge for yourself.

Keeping my focus on the Biosphere, I decided I wanted to do something with this particular sketch.

It's a a somewhat wasted landscape at Achnashellach where the trees in a plantation woodland have largely been removed, leaving only a few remnant trees here and there.  This is quite a common story of small landscapes in this area.  I also liked the light on the far hill.

I had made this start to quite a large painting (acrylic on paper) way back in August.  

It looks kind of OK at this scale, but I wasn't happy with it in reality....too literal, perhaps.  So I tried to improve upon it, trying to simplify it a little.  But you can see that it's lost a bit of drama.

I didn't like it now and put it away for a few months.   Then I was along at Achnasheen in December and did another sketch of roughly the same scene, deciding that the trees needed to be taller.  When I came back to the studio I pulled it out of the drawer and had another go. Actually, I had a look at the trees by Cezanne and by Peploe to inspire and encourage me to take a bold plunge! 

Of course, I still wasn't happy - too much bracken and the blue of the far hill didn't work.

I thought this one was getting there....worth continuing....

Then I decided that the far hill needed more drama!

And finally, I've added the pale green hill back in, brightened up the grasses at the front and inserted a bit of shadow.

So this is it - finished...or not.  I've decided that I've done enough for the moment - I think it's better than it was, and I feel that it has a cohesive whole.  Anyway I'll put this away in a drawer.  Then I might take it out for a look in a month or so to decide whether or not to frame.

It's been a hard month!

Starting On A High

Happy New Year! I was glad to get through to the end of 2022, and happy to welcome in a new year with hopes for the future despite the obvious ongoing global concerns. Once again, I aim to do more regular blogging this year, so we'll see how that goes.  (My record is not great!)

I'm starting the New Year on a high because I have two pictures on show in the RSA building at the moment. The curators of the current SSA exhibition (130 years) selected a painting and a print of mine - they are modest pictures but I'm delighted to be part of the amazing show. Today I thought I'd tell you the stories behind the paintings.

“Iona Rocks” is an oil painting. It's based on a sketch I did on the north beach, Iona when Peter and I visited in September 2021. It was a magical day. We left Tobermory at 6 and drove down to get the first ferry over to Iona, and headed straight for the north beach. The sun was just burning off the morning haze when we reached the beach and I did several sketches. Inevitably I was thinking about Peploe, Caddell and the other Scottish Colourists as we walked. When I came upon this particular group of rocks, there was something that appealed to me and I sat down and did a more detailed coloured sketch in pastels.

 

This was the sketch that I returned to in the studio to create this painting.  I did feel quite transported away back to Iona  and the world of the Colourists while I was painting it.  It turned out a bit moodier than the sketch, but the colour is much richer.  I was quite pleased with it at the time.  Iona is such a magical place - I did a few paintings from those sketches.

 

“The Black Pool” is a picture based on a landscape closer to home. It is a photopolymer print, based on several sketches I've done on a number of trips to Silverbridge and the Black Water, just north of Garve (between Inverness and Ullapool). I was alerted to this unassumingly beautiful place by the artist Jonathan Shearer who extolled its virtues as a place to go and sketch and paint en plein air. I was not disappointed! I've now been there several times, attempting to capture something of the character and atmosphere of the river and riverbanks. 

I have a number of sketches and I had a go at painting this particular scene. I did an earlier blog about this which you may remember.

Then, when I was looking around for drawings to use for making new plates, I decided to draw it in ink and use this same sketch to make a photopolymer plate.  When I printed it out, here's how it looks.

It's interesting to compare the pieces and I feel very fortunate to be exhibiting with the SSA.

I want to keep the momentum going.  I'm now sorting out my thoughts for a year of hard work...a few exhibitions on the horizon. So I hope to blog again soon.

Starting A New Chapter

 

2021 has been a busy year and I've never found the time to do any blogging. I've missed it! I think blogging helps me to reflect and improve on the work I'm producing. I shall resolve to try and create more regular blog posts over the next year, using this as my springboard.

I'm developing ideas for a new body of work. I live in a beautiful part of Scotland which was recently designated a UNESCO Biosphere. I'm thinking about doing a series of paintings and prints that are focused on the Biosphere, maybe trying to explore a particular angle or angles. For instance, I was thinking about 'extremities' or 'extremes', or maybe something weather-related with a theme title like 'elemental'.

The Wester Ross Biosphere covers an enormous area with a great variety of landscapes and so another thought is to do several different groups of paintings in an attempt to describe the diversity of the landscapes here. With this in mind, as a start, I've embarked on a series of riverscapes.

Sketching By The River

Sketch 1 in pastel

I went for a walk and a sketch at Silverbridge, outside Garve. Garve happens to lie at the eastern extremity of the Biosphere (and so it also fits with the 'extremities' idea - another reason for sketching there). I had heard about this river – the Black Water - and I found it to be a beautiful, atmospheric place. I took lots of photos too.  It was cold and damp.  I haven't done much sketching by rivers, and so it was a bit of a challenge.

Sketch 2 - pencil drawing of the Wade Bridge

Sketch 3 in charcoal

As I sat sketching, I was reminded of the paintings of Tom Thomson (one of the Canadian Group of Seven). I felt that the combination of the fast-flowing river, the pines on the riverbanks, and the sculpted rocks was redolent of the Canadian landscape (or to be more precise, the Algonquin landscape, I think). This was in my head as I sketched, and it came back to me in the studio when I was developing the sketches.

Developing ideas 1

 

Developing ideas 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

The river was in such spate, fast-flowing with foaming waterfalls, yellowish peaty water, and rich dark depths. I had done several sketches on both banks of the river and I re-drew these, also referring to photographs. The mixed woodland (pines and birches) provided a dark backdrop, and as it was a gloomy day, I couldn't see the hills beyond the trees.  

 

 

Paintings so far.

Painting 1 (so far)

 

I decided to focus on three images.  I liked the contrast between the rich black pools and the foaming water, and I loved the amazing rocks. 

 

Painting 2 (so far)

These paintings are all acrylic on paper. I may go on and do an oil painting based on one or two of them, but for the moment I am resting them – setting them aside before deciding if they are finished or not. I've also been seeking out appropriate river poem quotes. I tried MacCaig first, and found this from his poem “Falls of Measach” - “Waterfalls marking the stages to some rich plunge into the dark”. This did seem to fit with the foaming rapids cascading into darkly rich pools. 

 

Painting 3 (so far)

 I also found these lines by Mary Oliver from her poem “At The River Clarion”-

“I listened to the voices of the river talking.
Whenever the water struck a stone it had something to say,
and the water itself, and even the mosses trailing under the water.
And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me what they were saying.”

It strikes me that this might be a good way of describing the mystery of sketching.  What do you think?