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Archive for the ‘Artwork of the Week’ Category

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2010
177-autumn-hillside-above-crieff-acrylic-pastel-2010-76-x-23-cm-large

'Autumn-hillside, above Crieff'

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’, Acrylic and pastel, 76 x 23 cm.

This is one of my recent paintings and is one of several that I have been working on based on the beautiful upland countryside near Crieff, in Perthshire. We have walked these hills on a number of occasions and under very different conditions. Only a year ago, we were forced to retreat from the upper slopes of Ben Chonzie by an increasingly ferocious, winter gale, but when we visited earlier this autumn, we saw the landscape in fine weather. As we started to descend, the late afternoon sun picked out the vivid autumn colours.

This painting will be exhibited as part of my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in February.

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“From Ben Lui”

Posted by admin on November 27th, 2010
'From Ben Lui', Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 76 x 23 cm Ref:128

'From Ben Lui'

“From Ben Lui”, Acrylic & Pastel, 3009, 76 x 23 cm

It’s a fairly long walk in to the base of Ben Lui from Tyndrum and it takes us about two hours to get to the end of the estate track and start the actual business of climbing the hill.  But it’s not a boring walk in…it’s quite the opposite in fact, with the track following along the side of the river for a long way and the hills rising on all sides.  For most of the way though, the eye is drawn to the beautiful sight of Ben Lui rising steeply at the end of the glen.  In winter it looks particularly imposing and its great central gully holds the snow for a long time.

This painting is one I did after a fine day clambering up part of the east ridge of this mountain.  It’s an impression of the view we had from a point about half way up the ridge.  In snow, this was a fairly serious undertaking for me and this was the high point of the day…..the summit was still a long way above us.

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“Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoon”

Posted by admin on November 19th, 2010
'Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoon', Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 76 x 23 cm

'Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoo

“Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoon”, Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 76 x 23cm

I thought I’d use this painting today as my current blog is all about our latest visit to Ben Ledi.  I did this painting after our previous visit back in the spring of 2009.  On that occasion we not only walked Ben Ledi, but continued all the way over to its neighbour Benvane.  This is quite a big undertaking if you only have one car and have to get back to it at the end of the day.

The way follows a long undulating ridge of grass, crag and bog, which has to be retraced most of the way on the return.  That said though, we had a beautiful spring day of warm sun and mainly blue skies so the views and the colours were particularly fine.

We reached Benvane around mid afternoon and had the top completely to ourselves …indeed, after leaving Ben Ledi we saw only a couple of other people I seem to remember.  The bigger hills around still had quite a lot of snow on and so stood out impressively and even Ben Ledi still had a few patches clinging to the crags on its eastern side.

I was pleased with this little painting and it always brings back good memories of this long but wonderful day.  The painting is currently available at Scotlandart.com.

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“From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret”

Posted by admin on November 8th, 2010
173-from-carn-chois-above-loch-turret-acrylic-pastel-2010-30-x-30-cm

"From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret"

‘From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 30 x 30 cm

I’m not sure whether to describe this as a drawing or a painting!  It probably has more scribbled pastel in it than paint and it certainly feels more like a drawing.  Anyway, I was trying to get something that put over a little of the scratchy nature of these upland heather moors especially as we experienced them with a slight scattering of snow on them.  This early snow catches the wild life out a little too.  When we were on these hills the other week, Nita spotted two mountain hares …one, in its full winter coat of white, and another still dressed in its summer cart of brown fur.  So long as the white one sat on the patches of snow and the brown one sat in the heather they were ok, but if they moved onto the wrong ground they could be seen more easily.

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“In the Mamores, Spring”

Posted by admin on October 29th, 2010
in-the-mamores-spring-acrylic-pastel-2010-60x-30cm

'In the Mamores, Sping'

“In the Mamores, spring”, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 60 x 30 cm

The Mamores are just about at the limit for us as a practical day trip from Irvine. This is partly due to the fact that it’s a three hour drive to Kinlochleven and part due to the fact that these hills are for me quite an undertaking … and I’m am very slow in places like this. As such, a day in the Mamores is a big one for me and can only really be undertaken during the long day light hours of late spring and early summer months. This little painting is based on the view looking north from the ridge as you approach Stob Coire a’ Chairn and shows the very shapely top of An Garbhanach. On the day we were here it was a mixture of sunshine and big heavy showers of rain, hail and soft wet snow, but in the sun this hill looked very inviting. Mind you, according to the guide book, the actual ridge over the top is very narrow and quite exposed …so probably not one for me and my fuzzy eye! I may just have to dream about climbing this one!

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‘From Ghlas Beinne, Rannoch Moor – frozen lochs’

Posted by admin on October 22nd, 2010
'From Ghlas Beinne, Rannoch Moor- frozen lochs' Acrylic-pastel-2010-76-x-23-cm

'From Ghlas Beinne, Rannoch Moor- frozen lochs'

‘From Ghlas Beinne, Rannoch Moor – frozen lochs’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 76 x 23 cm

This is my very latest painting. I think it’s finished, but as with all my work, I like to leave new paintings for a few weeks after finishing them before deciding they’re actually finished! Does this make sense? I do go back to them at this stage sometimes and ‘tweak’ them a little, but I’m fairly confident with this piece that there will be no need for adjustments …and of course having to photograph the piece again.

This, as anyone who has been following my work for the last year will see, is another in the series of small paintings I’ve been doing based on a trip last winter to Rannoch Moor. The paintings are becoming more about the colours and marks and I’m now planning to start working on at least one bigger painting based on this subject. In this piece I’ve mainly used a selection of large flat brushes..the biggest being a six inch wide nylon brush. Re working this painting on a larger scale would give me more scope to develop these large sweeping marks. I guess I’d better get down to the wood yard an order some new large painting boards as ideally I’d like to get a couple of big pieces ready for my solo show at The Strathearn Gallery in February.

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‘January afternoon, the Rest and Be Thankful’

Posted by admin on October 14th, 2010

'January afternoon, the Rest and be Thankful'-acrylic-pastel-2010-60-x-27-cm-rp Ref 170

‘January afternoon, the Rest and Be Thankful’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 60 x 27 cm

I’ve walked all the hills that surround the Rest and Be Thankful and the views from all of them are impressive. This said however, the views from down in the pass take some beating, especially when the steep sided hills are covered in snow and ice. This painting is based on the view of Beinn Luibhean as we saw it on an icy January day the other winter. I’ve use quite large brushes on this painting, applying much of the translucent paint in broad strokes. It’s not the most accurate painting in the world but hopefully it conveys some of the intense cold of that late January afternoon.

This painting will be exhibited along with five other new works, as part of the ‘New Gallery Artists’ exhibition at the Scotlandart.com gallery in Edinburgh – opens end of October. Full details to come shortly.

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‘Mists clearing Beinn Toaig’

Posted by admin on October 8th, 2010
63 'Mists clearing Beinn Toaig', Acrylic & Pastel, 2007, 47

'Mists clearing Beinn Toaig'

‘Mists clearing Beinn Toaig’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2007, 47 x 47cm

Beinn Toaig is a fine hill that rises above Loch Tulla and is backed by its higher neighbour Stob a’ Coire Odhair. It makes a fine route to climb these two hills together, starting from near Victoria Bridge and following the West Highland Way for a couple of kilometres before heading off across the moor to gain the broad stony ridge to Beinn Toaig. From the top is a fine view all around and it’s only a relatively short haul up to the summit of Stob a’ Coire Odhair. You get a great view of these hills though from the main A82 as it climbs up onto Rannoch Moor and this painting was based on this view one late autumn day with the first snow lying on the higher slopes and heavy clouds breaking all around.

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Beinn Dorain and the Bridge of Orchy Hills, April

Posted by admin on September 23rd, 2010
beinn-dorain-and-the-bridge-of-orchy-hills-april-acrylic-pastel-2010-60-x-27-cm

Beinn Dorain and the Bridge of Orchy hills,April

‘Beinn Dorain and the Bridge of Orchy Hills, April’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 60 x 27 cm

This is a new version of the view from the summit of Beinn Odhar and it will be exhibited as part of a ‘New gallery artists’ exhibition at Scotlandart.com Edinburgh gallery. The exhibition will open in late October. More info re this exhibition nearer the time.

We had planned to climb this hill tomorrow but a problem with the car has meant we’ve had to cancel …but it’ll be there for another time. This 900m hill is a real favourite of mine so it’ll not be long before we’re back.

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“Bracken, Beinn Dubh, Luss”

Posted by admin on September 16th, 2010
'Bracken, Beinn Dubh, Luss

'Bracken, Beinn Dubh, Luss'

“Bracken, Beinn Dubh, Luss”, Acrylic and pastel, 2007, 76 x 23cm

I did this painting back in 2007 and it is a little different from most of my stuff. Perhaps this is why it hasn’t sold. But I like it all the same and we have it hanging on our wall some times.

When you climb Beinn Dubh from Luss, the path picks its way at first through areas of thick bracken and by late autumn, this is just a mass of copper – orange. In the sun it is quite striking. This abstract painting was my first excuse for using this colour and several visitors to the studio have seen it as a painting of Ayers Rock.

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