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!

Where Does the Time Go?

February was a quiet month which meant I could be busy in the studio. March was very busy, mostly away from home. So I'm only just catching up with my blog now.

In January, I explained that I was doing drawings to prepare for print-making.  In February, I managed to turn my drawings into photo-polymer plates, and in the course of the month I printed off some of the two editions.  As always, before you start printing out the edition, you have to think about colour.  With 'Riverbank' I thought about adding a bit of brightness, but in the end I went for a subtle colour gradation - two different colours of black: blue-black by the river and brown-black for the trees.  It's so subtle that you can hardly notice it in this photograph.

 And here's the other print: I inked the plate with a touch of lemon ink to give the impression of light.  Haven't got a title yet....

Still on the Biosphere theme, I continued my preoccupation with woodland lochans and returned to my favourite spot near Achnashellach for more sketching. 

I liked the composition of this and worked on a few paintings in different media.... but not sure if any of these are finished yet.  But here's a small acrylic which I consider to be finished!

Woodland Lochan - Acrylic/mixed media

This was quite interesting because I painted this on top of an old painting and in the course revealed lots of interesting colours and effects which I decided to retain in the final version.

However, not all my work has been biosphere-related. It was so gloomy in February that I raided my sketchbooks for some brighter scenes. I came up with ideas about Iona and Staffa.  I'm now trying to paint in canvas more often, and this time I got the oils out.

North Beach, Iona - oil on canvas

This was based on an early morning sketch done when we first reached the north beach.

And here's one I did of Staffa, based on my sketch from the top of the hill.

Staffa Cliffs - oil on canvas

I did enjoy painting these scenes in February – it transported me back to some lovely bright days and happy memories of summer....

At the end of March, I had a great trip to Loch Coruisk in Skye.... but that's for another blog!