Scottish Landscape Art – Scottish Landscape Paintings

‘West coast scene, Isle of Harris’

‘West coast scene, Isle of Harris’, Oil on canvas, 2013, 80 x 80 cm

Well then, this is the final version of an oil painting I started four or five months ago.  It’s based on a view we saw as we were driving down the road along the west coast of Harris back in May.  At one point the road climbs just a little and from the lay-by conveniently situated at the high point, we had a superb view out over the rock, sand and surf.  It was quite a rough sea and there was a lot of movement in the scene.  This painting is done entirely from the memories I have of standing there just looking and listening.  I wanted to create something that was hopefully both abstract and landscape / seascape and use very thick paint applied almost entirely with my fathers old six inch wide horse hair house painting brush.  The paint has been built up over time with the thick paint put down in slightly different directions, the brush strokes overlapping each other.

This is quite different from much of my acrylic and pastel work and I must admit I’m finding it hard and very different working in oil …but it’s been great fun and I think I’ve learn quite a lot from doing this piece.  I’ve already started work on several other pieces …but before I go much further I may need to track down a manufacturer of traditional horse hair brushes as my father’s old house painting brush, (I remember him using it on our house in Epping in the mid 1960’s) is shouting out for retirement!

‘Winter morning, Irvine Harbourside’

‘Winter morning, Irvine Harbourside’, Pastel, 2003

This is a drawing I did 10 years ago.  It was based on a view I had through my monocular looking around the river to where the ‘City of Adelaide’ was resting on a slipway.  On the morning in question it was bright and cold and a very slight layer of snow had fallen the previous night.  In this drawing you can just see the prow or stern of the ship.  As you will have seen if you’ve visited my blog this week, this grand old ship was moved from the place it has sat for over 20 years and is now on a barge waiting a long trip to Australia, where it is to be restored.

It has been quite a landmark on the harbour side here in Irvine and will be missed by many I’m sure.  That said, it’s great that someone is putting up the money to restore it to its former glory.

I’m much temped to do a few new drawings of this ship while it is still on the River Irvine.

Latest work in progress
‘Breaking waves, Harris, west coast’,

Latest work in progress – ‘Breaking waves, Harris, west coast’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 30 x 30 cm

I took this quick photograph in my studio yesterday evening.  It shows a new painting I’m working on.  I’m not too sure quite what to do next …whether to continue working into it or call it finished.  I think I’m going to have to leave it for a few days and then perhaps I’ll know.  The reason I’ve included it as my ‘Artwork of the week’ is that when I posted this photo on my Face Book page, Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist, yesterday evening ….it got a lot of interest.  I realise that there are still many folk who don’t use Face Book so here is the image again.  I hope you like it.

Once I’ve finished writing this and my blog, I’ll be going back down to my studio.  This is when I’ll see the painting afresh …and it’s amazing just how different a piece can look in the few hours between finishing working one evening and starting again the next morning.  Wish me luck!