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?

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?

The Treeless Landscape

For someone who loves trees (and loves drawing trees.), I find myself sketching landscapes without trees quite a lot. Many are coastal scenes, but hilly landscapes in this region also tend to have few trees. I suppose it's inevitable in these parts where the original tree cover was largely removed several centuries ago. It's a legacy of our industrial heritage, mostly down to shipbuilding and iron smelting, followed by sheep farming. Nowadays, the remaining shreds of our native woodland are so precious that many of them are protected by law.

Anyway, I love the wild windswept look of treeless landscapes: they motivate me to get down to a bit of sketching, even on a moody day like this.  

 

 I like that elemental feeling that you get from a landscape pared down to its topographical purity, with perhaps the occasional small plantation intruding here and there. However, in compositional terms I can find these landscapes a challenge. The shape of a hill becomes hugely important, as does its dominance within the scene. And the overriding focus becomes colour and texture.

In  spring I embarked on a few larger oil paintings. I love using oils but find them more of a challenge than acrylics, and often get a bit stuck. I was determined to produce a result.

Marsco (on Skye) is a hill with a beautiful angular shape.  We have walked into Glen Sligachan several times and I always have to stop and sketch the view. Glen Sligachan is quite bleak – sandwiched between Marsco and Sgurr Nan Gillean – and perfect to allow the shape of the hill to become the focus of the scene. 

 

I had already painted a couple of acrylic paintings from my sketches, but I was not altogether happy with these. I felt the colour was a little too realistic!

 

 

 

I made a start to an oil painting with some under-painting trying to get a feeling of lightness and that welcoming lure of the hills, and thinking about the marks to use in the treatment of the ground cover.  The first layer ended up like this (below left). 

Then I painted over this layer to get better depth of colour. All the time I was trying to maintain a similar palette and the lightness of colour.  I also tried to improve on the composition by turning the river into a lochan and raising the height of Marsco to allow it to dominate in a more pleasing way. 

So it ended up like this (below right).

 

 

 

 

 

Torridon is another largely treeless landscape.  I find the moorland behind (to the north of) Liathach and Beinn Eighe a great spot. The hills rise directly out of the boggy floor, like ships on the sea. I have sketched Beinn a Chearcaill several times, and painted it in acrylic, like this.

When it came to rendering the scene in oils, I decided to adjust the palette and use more of a geometric approach to the moorland, including the rocks.  Initially I couldn't quite get the look I wanted, and then this misty mysterious look emerged, and that seemed to work. So that's why it has ended up like this. 

However, the presence of such dominant hills takes the eye away from the emptiness of the moorland. I have realised that if I want to paint empty moorland scenes I have to think more about skies. So I have been working a bit harder of portraying clouds and skyscapes.  Then I thought about developing this sketch I did in the Fisherfield area.

Working in acrylics, I realised that the composition (the emptyness) could be enhanced by adding more sky. I had done the sketch on a bright windy day with the clouds scudding across the sky and I sought to capture this in the sky.

These three finished paintings have found their way to a show in the Lemond Gallery, Bearsden (Glasgow)  – the Big Christmas Show 2020. I got them nicely framed locally by Emma Noble in Kyle – she's done a great job. Look at the two oils!

 

Anyway - the work is all online at the Lemond Gallery which is now planning to reopen on Friday 11th to Monday 14^th December for its final session (now that Covid-19 Rules permit!).   If you would like to take a look, here's the link  https://www.lemondgallery.com/