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Archive for the ‘Artwork of the Week’ Category

Work in progress – ‘The gold hills, near Wanlockhead’

Posted by admin on September 4th, 2011
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work in progress - "The Gold Hills near Wanlockhead"

Work in progress – ‘The gold hills, near Wanlockhead’, Acrylic & Pastel, 80 x 80 cm

This is another of the new 80 x 80 cm paintings. The hills around Wanlockhead contain gold apparently. Indeed, I’m sure I’ve heard that the gold panning championships have been held in this area of Scotland’s Southern Uplands in the past. If they do contain this beautiful metal, then I never found any on my one visit …but then again I guess that’s not exactly surprising is it?! That said however, on a late December afternoon with the sun getting low in the sky, these vast areas of undulating grass covered hills really do turn the most amazing colours …all sorts of yellows, ochre, copper and yes gold. I thought it’d be interesting to use some metallic paints in this to try and mimic this impressive array. This painting is still on the go but I’m quite enjoying it …and may just have to revisit the area on a clear cold day this coming December ….there could be some new pieces to be found in these hills.

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‘November afternoon, below Stob Coire Raineach’

Posted by admin on August 26th, 2011
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'November afternoon below Stob Coire Raineach'

‘November afternoon, below Stob Coire Raineach’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm

Here is the latest of my new 80 x 80 cm paintings. We drive over Rannoch Moor and down through Glen Coe a good few times every year and the place never ceases to amaze me. Whatever the weather, the season or time, it always impresses. Sometimes it is almost completely filled with mist and cloud, other times hills rise steeply above you on all sides, clear and bright. Stob Coire Raineach always draws my attention …we did a scramble up the front of this hill a number of years ago with our friend Guy. I remember one especially slippery little set of crags we had to get over …with a big drop behind us..I imagine my language wasn’t too choice at the time …but I made it. This is the second largish painting I’ve done of this hill …and it probably won’t be the last.

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‘Beinn Nuis, Isle of Arran’

Posted by admin on August 21st, 2011
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'Beinn Nuis, Isle of Arran'

‘Beinn Nuis, Isle of Arran’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 76 x 23 cm

I thought I’d put this painting up this week seeing as my blog has been all about our latest trip over to the Isle of Arran. I did this painting a couple of years ago after an interesting walk up into the Arran Hills. It had been a particularly cloudy day with the hills well shrouded in mist as we’d headed up. Then gradually the cloud had broken around us giving amazing views as bits of the hills around us cleared. Sometimes we could see nothing but a small section of the ridge …then it would all disappear again before a summit would break free. We just sat for a while and watched this magical and slowly changing scene. An amazing day and just a hop on the ferry away from where we live …I love it here in Ayrshire.

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‘Harbour side, winter’

Posted by admin on August 4th, 2011
'Harbourside, winter'

'Harbourside, winter'

 

‘Harbour side, winter’, Pastel, 2004, 53 x 30 cm

Seeing as I’ve revisited some old drawings for my blog this week, I thought I’d include another one on the home page.

I did this back in 2004 after a short wander along the harbour side on a very cold and slightly snowy morning.  I’ve always liked the colours in this …a bit bright and garish but quite interesting.  I’ve always enjoyed the looseness of the marks in my drawings and have been trying to get something of this into the marks and surface of my paintings.  I’m still trying, and am I think gradually getting there, but it may be worth my while getting some of these earlier drawings back out and see what I can learn from them.  It is always important to keep on reassessing the work you are doing, looking at the way it has developed and trying to improve every time you start a new piece.

I’ve just ordered some large paint sticks so am looking forward to doing some new large drawings when they arrive.  It’ll be a change from using pastels and should give me much broader and more intense marks …. Watch this space, I’ll post some of the results as and when I get them done.

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‘On Beinn a’ Ghlo, Autumn’

Posted by admin on July 29th, 2011
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'On Beinn a Ghlo, Autumn'

‘On Beinn a’ Ghlo, Autumn’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm

This is another of the new 80 x 80 cm paintings. This painting is closely based on a small piece I did several years ago. This was completed after a walk on the high broad stone covered ridges of Beinn a’ Ghlo. It had been a day of great contrasts – heavy very dark clouds but with occasional breaks, allowing bright sunshine through and creating wonderful colours. This recent painting is more abstract I guess. I’ve just been concentrating on the colours, marks and texture.

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‘Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain’

Posted by admin on July 25th, 2011
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‘Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain’

‘Winter afternoon, Beinn Dorain’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm

This is the latest of the new 80 x 80 cm paintings and is one of two pieces based on the slopes of Beinn Dorain on a rather drab winter afternoon.  This hill appears most dramatically as you drive north between Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy.  From the high point of the A82 just beyond Tyndrum it appears as a very steep sided cone but as you get closer its huge western flanks rise up from the floor of the glen in a long wall that runs all the way to Bridge of Orchy.  Contouring around its base is the railway line that crosses the Auch Gleann in a great curve on viaducts.  This is just a wonderful spot whether you’re driving along the A82, a passenger on the train, or walking the West Highland Way.

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‘On the ridge to Am Bodach, Spring’

Posted by admin on July 15th, 2011

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‘On the ridge to Am Bodach, Spring’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm

This is another of the new larger (80 x 80 cm) paintings that I’ve been working on recently.  It’s a completely new working of a composition I’ve used before but this time with thicker, larger marks and more intense colours.  Although still based on the wonderful section of ridge between the top of the Devil’s Staircase and Am Bodach, this piece is I guess more about the paint, the composition and the marks.  I’ve only just stopped working on it so it’s too early to say yet whether it’s ‘finished’ or not.  This is one of the paintings I’m doing for my exhibition in Speyer in October.  I’m hoping to take around 10 of these new 80 x 80 cm paintings along with 10 other smaller pieces…all to be completed and shipped out around the 7th October.  The exhibition opens on Friday 14th October and will run for two weeks.  Full details nearer the time.

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‘Winter patterns, Beinn Dorain’ – work in progress

Posted by admin on July 9th, 2011
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'Winter patterns, Beinn Dorain'

 

Work in progress:  ‘Winter patterns, Beinn Dorain’, Acrylic & Pastel, 80 x 80 cm

Two or three weeks ago I posted a photo on my Face Book page Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist. The photo was one that I’d taken several years ago as we were returning from a weekend of walking in Kinlochleven. It was February and the weather had been atrocious ..indeed, it was very severe up on the tops….so much so that on Sunday morning we’d decided to cut our losses and head home early. As we were driving back along the A82 just past Bridge of Orchy we got some amazing views across to the flanks of Beinn Dorain. These slopes are cut by numerous eroded gullies and after the snowfall of the weekend we saw an amazing pattern of snow and grass and crag. I don’t normally take photos out of the car but this was an exception and I always thought I’d like to try and do a painting based on what we saw that day.

To be honest I haven’t really been sure how to paint such a thing and it is only recently that I’ve felt like giving it a try. This is the first painting …still a work in progress …but coming on. I have already started another piece …a view of the slopes from a slightly different angle.

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‘On the east ridge of Ben Lui, Spring’

Posted by admin on July 1st, 2011
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‘On the east ridge of Ben Lui, Spring’

 

 

‘On the east ridge of Ben Lui, spring’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 30 x 30 cm

This small painting looks back to one of the finest winter days I’ve had on the hill. We’d had a (for me) quite challenging scramble up the steep slopes of the east ridge of Ben Lui, reaching the almost level section about half way up. We had planned to continue to the top but in the winter conditions I was moving far too slowly and so we called it a day at this point. We descended down steep slopes into the glen and as we did so, got amazing views up the ridge towards the summit …the bright light bouncing off the snow and ice. Getting to the top is sometimes not the most important thing and this was certainly the case on this occasion…..it was a memorable and exhilarating day.

This painting is currently being exhibited at Blairmore Gallery near Dunoon. The exhibition runs until July 20th 2011.

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‘Near Achmelvich, Assynt’

Posted by admin on June 25th, 2011

'Near Achmelvich, Assynt', Pen, 18 x 14 cm

‘Near Achmelvich, Assynt’, Pen, 2009, 18 x 14 cm

This is one of the small sketches that I’ve included in the exhibition at Blairmore Gallery near Dunoon. It is one of the drawings I did while staying in Achmelvich in Assynt in May 2009. We’d taken the footpath that leads across the headland to Lochinver but then came across a small path leading off in the direction of the sea. It led by a secluded little loch that was surrounded by crags (one of many in this area). The path led after a short distance to a small hut near a rocky shore. What a fantastic place….so out of the way, so unspoilt.

 

To see the other works currently on display at Blairmore Gallery, visit: http://www.blairmoregallery.co.uk/artists/keith-salmon/

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  • Tel: 07568 380552 or 01294 216427
    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org