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Exhibitions | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Archive for the ‘Exhibitions’ Category

Winter / Spring update 2024

New Year – new artwork

 

As you are probably aware, for the last few years I’ve been working almost entirely on larger paintings that are accompanied by sound. I’ve had a lot of fun developing this collaborative work with sound engineer Graham Byron and the last show (which ended just a few weeks ago) ‘Painting with Sound – Short walks along the West Coast of Scotland’ at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, was probably the best exhibition I’ve had.

Painting with Sound exhibition, Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine

The final configuration of the visual and audio elements, using QR codes to give a very immersive experience, proved very successful and I will now be looking for venues in which to exhibit and sell this kind of innovative landscape work. Watch this space!

Painting with Sound exhibition, Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine

Of course, this audio-visual work has taken a huge amount of time to develop and even doing the large 120 x 120 cm oil paintings has been very time consuming, with each one of the 11 such pieces in the recent show taking anywhere between two and four months to complete……and that doesn’t include all the hours Graham and I have put into creating the soundscapes. As such I have done almost none of the smaller acrylic and pastel paintings for which I became known and which sold well enough to pay for the upkeep of my studio over the years.

I have therefore decided to get back to painting some of these smaller pieces and now have three new 76 x 23 cm acrylic and pastel paintings completed:

478 ‘Towards Glen Sannox, Isle of Arran’

 

479 ‘A passing view from near Crianlarich, January’

 

480 ‘An afternoon in December, Creag Meagaidh’

 

 

Something completely new

 

In the past I have only ever used oil for the larger paintings but have really enjoyed building the oil colour for these in thick layers. I have decided to try and do this on a much smaller scale, creating small, (20 x 20 cm) semi abstract landscapes in thick choppy oil paint. I have been doing these small pieces quite quickly in just one or two sessions. I’m quite pleased with them as they are a nice cross between the smaller acrylic & pastel paintings I have done in the past and the more recent larger oil pieces. Here are images of several of these new pieces, I hope that you like them:

463 ‘Luss Hills sketch, early winter’

 

473 ‘An early winter afternoon, Glen Lyon’

 

474 ‘In the Drumochter Hills, early spring’

 

475 ‘In the mountains above Glen Shiel, winter’

 

476 ‘Above Glen Ogle, Febraury’

Finally, if you run a gallery and would like to exhibit and sell some of my work, please don’t hesitate to contact me:
Email: keith@keithsalmon.org or
Tel: 07568 380552

PRESS RELEASE: ‘Painting with Sound – Short Walks along the West Coast of Scotland’

INNOVATIVE ARTISTIC COLLABORATION BRINGS

SCOTTISH LANDSCAPES TO LIFE IN A

NEW AUDIO VISUAL EXHIBITION AT THE

SCOTTISH MARITIME MUSEUM

Painting with Sound – Short Walks along the West Coast of Scotland’

Saturday 14 October – 21 January 2024

A new audio visual exhibition opening at the Scottish Maritime Museum on Irvine Harbourside on Saturday 14 October is set to give visitors a unique experience of landscapes across Scotland.

‘Painting with Sound – Short walks along the west coast of Scotland’ is a collaborative exhibition created by artist Keith Salmon and sound engineers Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland.

The exhibition features 23 new landscape paintings by Keith, who is based in the WASPS Courtyard Studios on Irvine Harbourside.

Seventeen of the paintings will be on show alongside video soundscapes produced by Graham and Drew.

The video soundscapes draw on recordings Keith took whilst walking and researching his paintings as well as tonal pieces composed by Graham.

The paintings and video soundscapes capture scenes as far apart as Sandwood Bay in the far North West of Scotland, Garlieston and the salt marshes at the Crook of Baldoon on the Solway Firth.

Visitors to the immersive exhibition can view the paintings and hear excerpts from the soundscapes live in the space or alternatively access the individual full-length video soundscapes by scanning a QR code with a phone and listening through their earbuds.

Scan or click the QR code to start video.

Eva Bukowska, Exhibitions and Events Officer at the Scottish Maritime Museum, says:

“We’re thrilled to host this innovative and collaborative audio visual exhibition of artworks by Keith Salmon, Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland.

“‘Painting with Sound’ will give our visitors a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in sights and sounds out in the wild which have inspired the paintings and video soundscapes and get a feel for the creative processes at work. We look forward to welcoming everyone to the exhibition when it opens next month.”

Artist Keith Salmon adds:

“We’re delighted to open ‘Painting with Sound’ at the Scottish Maritime Museum.

“The exhibition reflects my passion for the Scottish landscape and is the latest installation in my long-term collaboration with Graham and Drew.

“Introduced to hillwalking by my father when I was ten, I have spent the last 50 years exploring the varied landscapes of Britain, focusing on wild and sometimes remote parts of Scotland since moving to Irvine in 1998.

“I’ve walked the Scottish hills and mountains, wandered through glens and along shorelines and experienced the landscape in all weathers, from baking summer days to those when ice axes and crampons are called for.

“More recently, I began taking sound recordings on my travels to help create paintings that really capture the essence of these wild and beautiful places.

“Over the eight years since I first contacted Graham, he and Drew have had a real impact on how this audio element to my work has developed.

“Graham in particular, has had considerable creative input with the video soundscapes in this exhibition and we’re all excited to present our latest collaborative work to the public.”

Painting with Sound – Short Walks along the West Coast of Scotland’ is on show at the Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine, from Saturday 14 October to 21 January 2024.

The exhibition is open 10am – 5pm daily and entry is included in Museum Admission.

www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org

Facebook/Twitter/Instagram @scotmaritime

Issued on behalf of the Scottish Maritime Museum by 

Joanna Harrison, Mobile: 07884 187404

Below is a copy of the exhibition poster along with further images of paintings included in this exhibition. If you like this please help us spread the word by sharing this with your friends, family and colleagues. Thank you.

1s’Sandwood Bay. Part 1. Dune Song’, Oil, 2023, 120 x 40 cm, £2250
2s ‘Sandwood Bay. Part 2. Surf Song’, Oil, 2023, 120 x 40 cm, £2250
3s ‘Sandwood Bay,.Part 3. River Song’, Oil, 2023, 120 x 40 cm, £2250
4s ‘Evening light, evening colours. Badcall Bay, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2022, 76 x 23cm, £1250
15s ‘Towards Arran from the dunes above Irvine beach’, Oil on canvas, 2023, 120 x 120 cm, £7500
16s ‘Mud-flats, Garlieston Bay, Solway Firth’, Oil, 2023, 60 x 90 cm, £2350
20s ‘Early evening, Loch Glendhu, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2019, 30 x 30 cm, £750
22s ‘West coast, Harris, May 2013’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 30 x 30 cm, £750
23s ‘Memories of a frozen Harbourside, Irvine’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2023, 118 x 61 cm, £2500
24s Towards Troon from the dunes near Irvine, Acrylic & Pastel, 2023, 80 x 80 cm, £2500

Spring / Summer 2023 – Latest Life & Exhibitions Update !

Walking and working …..but getting there

I finished my last blog by saying that there was an awful lot of work to do …….and this is my excuse for not writing another Life & Exhibitions Update – until now! That said, it has not all been work.

After several years when we have failed to get into the hills on a regular basis, we were determined this year to get back out and if possible, reclaim some of our hill fitness. To start with we were doing fairly short walks, heading for the smaller hills Beinn Dubh, Ben Inverveigh, Ben Cleuch and Beinn Leabhain. Then, as our legs started to complain less, we ventured a little further and managed some good hikes in the fine spring weather.

Towards Arkle

By the time we were heading off for our annual early May holiday in Sutherland we were feeling reasonably fit and one of the first trips we did was to venture up close to the remote and rugged peak of Foinaven. It is a fairly long walk in and the conditions weren’t great to start with, but as we made it to the rocky escarpment leading up towards the hill, the cloud lifted and we had amazing views across to Arkle and up to the serious parts of Foinaven. It all looked fantastic and definitely worth another visit ……..next time with an even earlier start.

On Meall an t’Seallaidh

We enjoyed several other fine walks that holiday and on getting back had a really fine couple of days on Meall an t Seallaidh above Glen Kendrum and Meall nan Subh in the Southern Highlands. It is difficult to pick any one day out, but here are a few photos from our trips.

At the summit of Meall Odhar
From Beinn Chaorach

Work!

Most of my time at the studio, over the last year or so, has been spent creating new work for the next ‘Painting with Sound’ exhibition. This show, titled ‘Painting with Sound – Short walks along the west coast of Scotland’ is to be held at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine and will open on 14th October 2023 and run until mid January 2024. The museum has a purpose-built exhibition space in the main body of the museum and it will be perfect for this combination of visual and audio landscape work.

Ref. 461 ‘Sandwood Bay, river song’, Oil, 2023, 120 x 40 cm

As with the last exhibition of Painting with Sound at the Barony Centre, this show is a collaboration with sound engineers Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland. The exhibition will include 23 paintings, of which 17 will have accompanying soundscapes. Eleven of these will be 120 x 120 cm canvases and it has been these larger pieces that have taken up so much of my time recently. The paintings and soundscapes are based on locations from Sandwood Bay near Cape Wrath in the far NW of Scotland, down to Garlieston and the Crook of Baldoon on the Solway Firth.

Ref. 465 ‘High tide on the west coast of Harris’, Acyrlic & Pastel, 2023, 80 x 80 cm

At the time of writing, all but two of the 23 paintings are completed and 15 of the 17 individual video soundscapes are finished. The exhibition will have a special video soundscape playing live that will have excerpts from all 17 pieces and for anyone interested in hearing the full length versions or wanting to get a more immersive experience, each piece will be available to listen to through their phone and ear-buds via a QR code. The following link will take you to ‘Wetlands. Crook of Baldoon, Solway Firth’. It will give you a taste of what the exhibition is all about.

Ref. 467 ‘Stoer, 2018, part 1’, Oil, 2023, 120 x 120 cm
The Seagull Gallery in Gourock

Finally, I have also made several new acrylic and pastel paintings and two of these are currently showing at The Seagull Gallery in Gourock. Both are based on the kind of views we had last September when we did a walk on Quinag in Assynt.

Ref. 456, ‘Overlooking Loch Assynt, a September afternoon’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2023, 80 x 80 cm
Ref. 457 ‘A September afternoon in the mountains of Assynt’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2023, 80 x 80 cm

Autumn Report – 2018

Autumn update – September / November 2018

Well then, it’s a fair time since I updated this homepage and a lot has been happening. I’ve spent much of the time since the “Painting with Sound” exhibition at the Barony Centre, simply painting and trying to catch up with all the paperwork that needed to be done! Over this period a number of exhibition opportunities have arisen and so the main focus of this new blog is to tell you about these shows.

 

The Biscuit Factory Autumn Exhibition – September 8th – October 28th

As you may know, I have over the past few years, shown some of my paintings at the fabulous Biscuit Factory in Newcastle upon Tyne. Back in the spring the gallery once again contacted me and asked if I’d like to show some more work with them, this time in their Autumn 2018 exhibition. I of course accepted and during the summer have been working on several new pieces specifically for this show. One of them is this new 80 x 80cm acrylic and pastel painting based on a walk we did in Sutherland back in May. The hill, Meallan a’ Chuail, is quite rugged and although only 750m, is a far more interesting summit than its slightly bigger neighbour, Beinn Leoid ….which was originally our target.

10 'A Sutherland landscape, Meallan a' Chuail', Acrylic & Pastel, 2018 80 x 80cm RP £2500

It really was an enjoyable and quite exhilarating day and we had the hill to ourselves. Even as we made our way up the ridge, I was thinking about how I might make a painting and I had started it within a few weeks of returning home to Irvine. As an aside, the folk at the Biscuit Factory have also asked me to give a short talk about my work and in particular, about how I have in recent years, started to use sound alongside paint. Sound engineers, Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland who I have been working with now for several years, will be travelling with me to Newcastle to set up and exhibit the Kylesku Project, our first audio painting, so that people who attend the talk will also get the opportunity to experience this new more immersive form of landscape. This event is planned for Sunday October 14th at 2pm. For further information and to book a ticket, please contact the Biscuit Factory.

1 'A cold, damp winter's morning, Glencoe', Acrylic & Pastel, 2017, 80 x 80cm RP £2500

 

 

Moray Arts Centre, Findhorn – September 4th – September 23rd

Keith Salmon exhibition poster Moray 2018

Earlier in the summer I was also asked whether I would like to put half a dozen small paintings into a group exhibition at the Moray Arts Centre, for a few weeks in September. It’s a long way to travel but I kind of figured that we could make the trips to deliver and collect the work, into wee short walking trips …..taking the gear and the tent with us and then heading for the Cairngorms. That was the plan anyway, but just three weeks ago I heard that the three other people taking part in the show, had pulled out for various reasons ….and I was asked if I’d put a small solo exhibition on instead. After a short time thinking about this and checking what work I had available, I agreed. Nita and I did a flying visit about ten days ago to see the centre and to get an idea of the space and after a mad week sorting and wrapping the work, we went back on Monday to hang the show. We were very lucky in this as Graham and Tracy Byron kindly offered to drive up and help is with the installation. This made for a very enjoyable and stress free few hours. The show looks good I think and hopefully we’ll get a good few visitors during the course of the exhibition. Of course, with a car full of paintings, there was no room for the rucksacks and so no walking …but hey, you can’t have everything!

Keith Salmon - Moray Arts Centre

 

Moray Art Centre Exhibition

 

The Seagull Gallery, Gourock – September – October

I was also recently invited to show a couple of small paintings in the Seagull Gallery in Gourock. The gallery has a rolling and constantly changing exhibition and there is a wonderful variety of work on display. For us living here in Irvine, it is just under an hour long drive up the coast and so made a very pleasant wee trip out when we went to deliver the paintings.

 

Courtyard Studios Group Exhibition – Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine  – September 21st – November 4th

We are once again holding a group exhibition of work created by the artists working at the Courtyard Studios in Irvine. The exhibition which will contain work by 17 artists, will include paintings, drawings, prints, jewellery, hand bookbinding, ceramics, leatherwork, photography and textiles……so something for everyone to enjoy. Things have been such a rush for me recently that I’m still not entirely sure which pieces I’ll be showing in this show! I have a new 80 x 80cm painting completed and another on the go ….so maybe one of these. I’m also working on a new large graphite drawing and so this might be a candidate if I get it finished in time.

 

Courtyard Studios Open Weekend – Saturday / Sunday 6 / 7th October, 12 noon – 5pm both days.

Entry free, all welcome:

This will, I think, be the 14th year running that we’ve held this event and it’s proved quite a success over the years. It’s a great opportunity to catch everyone in their studios at the same time and to see all the new work that has been done over the preceding 12 months. Many of us have been working at the Courtyard for a good number of years, but artists come and go and this year we have three new tenants and so there will be completely new work to see in their studios. As usual, everyone is welcome and of course, being right on the Harbourside, there are many and varied places to eat and drink during your visit. As well as a big selection of paintings and drawings on show in my studio, I will also be exhibiting and playing the Kylesku audio painting again ….so if you missed seeing and hearing it at the Barony Centre back in March, you’ll be able to catch it as part of this event.

 

Well, that’s about it for now. I do hope that you can get along to one or other of these events.

February Report 2018: Kylesku Project & “Painting with Sound” Exhibition

There has been a lot happening since I last updated this home page back in November. 

The most significant happening, although not really art related ……. was that after just over 30 years of being together, Nita and I finally got married!  That was back at the start of December and we spent a fabulous week away staying in one of the old lodges in the Brodick Castle estate on the Isle of Arran.  We had magnificent weather the whole week and actually arrived as snow was falling.  We managed to get several good short walks done, enjoying the cold crisp weather and the amazing views of the snow covered Arran peaks.  Since returning to the studio, I’ve completed several new 30 x 30 cm paintings and one of them tries to capture the scene looking into Glen Sannox….see below.

'Glen Sannox, a December morning', Acrylic & Pastel, 2017, 30 x 30cm

“Glen Sannox”

 

'From the Devil's Staircase, winter', Acrylic & Pastel, 2018, 30 x 30 cm

‘From the Devil’s Staircase, winter’

1s 'A Coigach landscape, January', Acrylic & Pastel, 2018, 30 x 30 cm

‘A Coigach landscape, January’

1 Towards the Arran mountains from Brodick Castle ground

Towards the Arran mountains from Brodick Castle ground

Of course, much of my time has been taken up with the larger and more experimental audio paintings.   As you know, the first of these, called the Kylesku Project, has been on the go since the summer and in October we were able to test out the partially finished piece for a few days in the magnificent space at the Barony Centre in West Kilbride.  The work was only up for a few days, but it gave us a chance to assess how effective the 5.1 soundtrack was and how well it worked with the 120 x 120 cm Kylesku painting.   We were all very encouraged by this first test and especially by the response we had to the work from visitors and staff at the centre.  It was so positive that we have been invited back to the Barony for a full exhibition early in March.

 

The exhibition, which we are calling, “Painting with Sound”, will open on Monday 5th March and run until 22nd March.  Below is the exhibition poster with all the relevant details:

A2 Painting with sound poster 600px

“Painting with Sound”

“Painting with Sound” is an exhibition of work by Ayrshire artists and sound engineers, Keith Salmon, Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland.

The focal point of the exhibition is the “Kylesku Project”, the trio’s latest audio visual collaboration.  Created from a series of sound recordings made on the shore of the sea loch near Kylesku in Sutherland in May 2017, the work consists of a 120 x 120 cm oil painting, produced by Keith Salmon and inspired by a 30 minute long 5.1 surround-sound track. Engineered and installed by Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland, the sound track will be playing throughout the exhibition and contains sounds from the natural Kylesku environment, sounds recorded as the painter works in his studio and a unique selection of computer generated tones.  As a viewer looks at the painting and moves in front of it, different elements of the soundtrack are heard through the five surround-sound speakers.   The Kylesku Project is the first in a series of evolving and uniquely Scottish sound / landscapes.  

 The exhibition will also contain around 25 of Keith Salmon’s Scottish landscape paintings, along with drawing, text, video and projected film footage that will plot the development since 2014 of this new and exciting Ayrshire based audio visual collaboration.

 

Although we are only just about to exhibit the Kylesku Project for the first time, we have already started work on our second audio piece.  This will also focus on the dramatic coastal scenery of Sutherland in north west Scotland.  A week after New Year, Nita, me, Graham and his wife Tracy, headed up north, aiming for the Stoer Head lighthouse that is situated on the prominent and rugged Stoer peninsular about 10 miles to the north of Lochinver.  It’s a wild spot at the best of times and Nita and I had visited it on several occasions in the past.  On one such trip last year, we had seen a notice at the lighthouse saying that the two flats adjoining it were available to rent.  Now, just for instance, if you wanted to make sound recordings of waves breaking and crashing against huge cliffs…..where would be better? So that was our destination….. both cars arriving at this lonely spot just as the light was fading and the lighthouse was doing its business.  It was quite amazing unloading our gear and carrying it up the spiral staircase to the top flat….. with the sound of the waves crashing below.

 

We stayed there for a week, each day heading out, armed with a variety of sound recording equipment and cameras.  While Graham organised and set up each of the recordings, Tracy filmed everything so that we had a record of this part of the work for future promotional material.  It all worked very well and we were especially lucky with the weather, it not only being dry all week, but also not that windy.  On the Wednesday and Thursday it was very nearly calm….. but with a big swell rolling in that made for some great sound!  At the end of each afternoon we would retreat to the warmth of the flat and then spend several more hours checking through the sound and film we had recorded.  Beer, good food and conversation added to the enjoyment and the week raced by.  Before long it was Sunday morning and we were packing the cars for the journey back to Ayrshire.  Only then did the weather break and we had to battle our way around the side of the lighthouse in a howling gale to get to the cars!  It was certainly a dramatic departure and my final sound recording was made of the wind howling in the stairwell leading down from the flat.

We got some very good recordings from the trip and Graham has already edited the film footage Tracy took, into a series of short clips which we’ll be projecting onto a large screen as part of the “Painting with Sound” exhibition.  I do hope you can get along to both see and hear our work…. it will, I’m sure, be a very different and hopefully, thought provoking experience.

The Oregon Project in Edinburgh !

“The Oregon Project and other works:
A Keith Salmon landscape retrospective in light and sound.”

The Oregon Project was first exhibited at the 9e2 Art, Science and Technology exhibition in Seattle in October 2016. Below are links that will take you to an article and short video made by Microsoft to help promote the work.
Article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/keith-salmon-oregon-project/
Video: https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft/videos/10154184382973721

The work will soon be present in Scotland at the Tent Gallery. Details of the exhibition:

Tent Gallery,
Edinburgh College of Art,
Evolution House,
78 West Port
Edinburgh
EH1 2LE

Exhibition preview: Friday April 7th, 5pm – 8pm
Exhibition runs: Saturday 8th April – Saturday 22nd April 2017
Open:   Daily, 11am – 5pm, Except Thursdays: 1pm – 7pm
RNIB evening: Tuesday 11th April, 5pm – 7pm

 

Keith and Neel Joshi from Microsoft, in Seattle, 2017

 

9e2 2017

Oregon project – 9e2 2017 – Seattle, USA

 

 

 

Happy New Year! – A short review of the last few months

 

If you are one of those long suffering souls who have been reading my blogs over the last few years….. well, there are changes afoot.  I’ve written close on 300 blogs over this time and for the most, I’ve really enjoyed doing them.  I tried to write a new one each week and for quite a few years did this with very few breaks.  Over the last year – 18 months however, you will have noticed that they have appeared less regularly and indeed, during the whole of 2016 I wrote only 19 blogs I think.   The reasons for this are simply that I have become increasingly busy but at the same time, my little bit of sight has deteriorated further and this means that everything takes even longer and is more difficult to do.  In short, the writing of my weekly blog and ‘artwork of the week’, was taking more and more time to do…..on average, I guess it is taking me almost five hours a week.  With the increased work load now that I am developing the audio visual projects as well as my usual paintings, I just can’t do everything ….and something has to go.  Five hours a week doesn’t sound that much, but over a year that adds up to a huge amount of time which I could better use to produce more work, or promote and sell the work I have.  So then, I’ve decided to update my website less regularly this year.  I’ll be updating it about eight times over the year.  The blogs will become more like reports of what’s been happening over the previous couple of months and the home page will show one of my most recent paintings.  I hope this will still be of interest. Anyway, without further ado, here is a little catch-up on the last few months.

A large part of 2016 was, for me, taken up with The Oregon Project.  This is the large audio visual piece of work I did in collaboration with Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi, Ayrshire sound engineer, Graham Byron, and independent Seattle based film maker, Dan Thornton.  The work finally all came together in mid October when the work was installed as part of the big “9e2” Art, Science and Technology Exhibition in Seattle.  I’ve written much about this project as it developed and so I think the best will be to add the following links.  These will take you to an article and very short video that were commissioned by Microsoft to help promote The Oregon Project. 

article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/keith-salmon-oregon-project/

video: https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft/videos/10154184382973721/

As you will see, this was a huge project that required many months of almost non-stop work.  As such, I had little or no time to do anything else during the period May – end of October.  This meant that for the first time in almost 18 years, we didn’t do any serious hill or mountain walking during the summer.  Not only had we rapidly become unfit…. we had both put on a few pounds too!  So, on returning to Scotland from Seattle we’ve started to get out walking again.  We’ve only done some easy and fairly short walks but the legs are starting to feel a bit better already.  Our latest outings included a fine little tromp up and over the Dumyat on the edge of the Ochil Hills, just before Christmas and a fine wander up Cairn Table near Muirkirk, a couple of days ago.  Of course, it’s not just the fitness I miss when we don’t get out, it’s the ‘being out in the wild’ bit that I really miss and this is such an important part of my work.  On these two short walks we experienced hugely different conditions.  In the Ochil Hills the light was extremely poor with thick dark low cloud sitting on even this little 400 m hill.  On Cairn Table however, we had almost cloudless skies with very bright low winter sunshine that made the winter colours really glow at times.  I will probably not create paintings based on these two walks but I will draw on the memories of the differing light conditions, at some point in the future. 

I’ve also been working hard on getting back into the actual painting.  The Oregon Project was all about drawing and sound and so the painting got put to one side.  It’s been great getting back to sticky oil paint again and I’ve completed one painting, (see the artwork of the week) and have another three canvases well under way.  I haven’t given up on my smaller acrylic and pastel work either and managed to get several new pieces completed. 

Work in progress

Exhibitions have been rather limited this year too, but I was lucky enough to be invited to show some work at both The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff and Scotlandart.com on Bath Street in Glasgow.  Looking ahead, I will have work showing in an interesting exhibition of contemporary landscape painting taking place in Halifax during the summer.  I’m still waiting final details but will post these nearer the time.

Smaller artworks

The next major event for me however, is the continuation of The Oregon Project work.  We have been invited to show the work at the Tent Gallery in Edinburgh University in April and so we are already planning this.  Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as it sounds as not only will we have to re-configure the work (the space is a different size and shape to the one we used in Seattle), we will also have to generate the funding to bring the work and the US team over for the event.  This is going to be the most difficult part as my limited sight makes it very difficult for me to do all the computer based work required to make applications etc.  Thankfully I’m not on my own with this though, Nita and Graham are both helping and so between the three of us we should get there with a bit of luck.  No doubt that by the time I write my next update, we’ll know quite how successful we’ve been!  More details nearer the time. That said of course, if you are part of a company who sponsor innovative projects, please do get in touch ….we need all the help we can get!  Thank you.

Update!

The Oregon Project

For the best part of the year you have heard me talking about the big sound and drawing project I’ve been working on.  The work is nearing completion with the installation almost built in Seattle and myself and Graham Byron flying out to assist the final install tomorrow.  The work will open to the public on Friday 21st October  as part of the big “9e2” exhibition in Seattle.  Below is a piece I wrote last week and this should give you a good idea of how everything has come together over the last few years.

Background

I trained in Fine Art in the early 1980’s, attending Shrewsbury School of Art, Falmouth School of Art and Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic.  In 1990 however, my sight which had until then been fine, deteriorated rapidly and by 1998 when I moved from Wales up to Ayrshire, I was officially registered as blind.

Throughout this period though, I was determined to continue doing my art and have, over the course of time, developed new ways of working that allow me to continue to paint and draw.  I turned professional in 2009 and now work from my studio on Irvine Harbour side, exhibit my work regularly and received the Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting.  Over the last few years I have been involved in several international projects that have involved creating works in Germany in 2010, Brazil in 2014 and now in Seattle in the USA.

In 2013, a chance meeting with Seattle based landscape photographer and independent film maker Daniel Thornton, (during the preview of my exhibition at ‘the gallery on the corner’ in Edinburgh) led to us working on a documentary project together. The documentary looks at my work as well as the role the visual impairment has played in its development.  The documentary is built around a large drawing project I worked on here in Scotland in late 2014. I created a 5m long, 1.5m high graphite drawing based on Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran, in the main gallery of the Harbour Arts Centre here in Irvine.  I produced the drawing in the public gallery as part of a bigger exhibition of my work.   I worked on the drawing each day and visitors to the centre could watch it develop.  This was I guess, more a kind of performance piece.  I also wanted the work to be more than a local event and as such arranged for each day’s work to be recorded on a time-lapse camera and then have it posted each evening on the Internet.   The time lapse recordings were made by the resident sound engineer /technician, Graham Byron.

Around that time, I had become aware that the very limited sight I had, was gradually getting worse and I started to wonder what I would do if it became so limited that my drawings became very minimal.  How would I continue to work as a professional artist?   One of my ideas was to use sound in some way to supplement the visual image, but I had no idea how I might go about this.  While talking with Graham during the big drawing project, I mentioned my idea for using sound and asked him how best I go about making the recordings.  He was very enthusiastic and kindly lent me some sound recording equipment along with some basic instructions on using it.  For the whole of 2015 I took the sound recorder with me on our regular walks into the Scottish Highlands and started to develop ideas for possible new work.

I had kept Dan Thornton up to date on this work and by chance he heard of an interesting project being developed by Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi.  The idea was to use Microsoft Kinect technology to create a system to help visually impaired people interpret two dimensional images with sound.  Neel had created a prototype and was looking to work with a visual artist who also worked with sound.  Dan told him about me and put us in contact.

The Oregon Project

After a good deal of discussion in late 2015, Dan Thornton and I were invited to join the team working on the project, which itself had been established in order to take part in the big “9e2” arts and science exhibition taking place in Seattle in October 2016.  A general view of the exhibition, its purpose and aims, can be found by visiting the website: www.9e2seattle.com .

My partner Nita and I flew out to Seattle in early May where we joined the full team to talk about the project, test the prototype and set plans for the work.  We decided to try and create something that was more than just a rather blunt interpretive tool for visually impaired people.  Instead we planned to try and create an art installation that was experimental, challenging and enjoyable for all concerned but that also had as an integral part of it…. an audio interpretive element that would allow visually impaired people to better interpret the purely visual side of the piece….. this being 3 large (8’ x 4’) pastel drawings.

Ever since first meeting with Dan Thornton, he had expressed an interest in seeing how I would interpret the NW American landscape and for this project he had organised a short artist’s residency for me at the Josephy Centre for Arts and Culture in the small town of Joseph in NE Oregon.  After our initial meeting at Microsoft we travelled down to Joseph where we spent 8 days exploring the stunningly varied landscape.  The plan was for me to gather as much information about it as possible and as such we were out in the landscape every day.  I did many small sketches, we all took numerous photos and Dan and his assistant Cindy Apple recorded the process on film.  We also made many sound recordings too.  By the time we had returned to Seattle we had formulated a plan for the work.  I would create three large pastel drawings based on three different views of the Hell’s Canyon region of Oregon.  One based on the view from the canyon rim, one from a position well down in the canyon and one based on the view we had at the river’s edge in the base of the canyon.

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

As far as I understand it the Microsoft connect technology will recognise a person’s location within a three dimensional space.  We would use this system to direct sounds to a viewer and these sounds would change according to their position in front of the drawing ….whether they are close to or further back from the surface of the drawing .  The Kinect technology can also recognise a person pointing at different parts of the drawing and once again send a corresponding soundtrack.  We decided that the work would have three different levels of sound:

Level 3: Furthest away from the drawing.  Here you would hear sound tracks relating to the view depicted in the drawing and mixed from recordings we made out on location in the canyon.

Level 2:  A position closer to the drawing.  Here we have added computer generated tones to match the main blocks of colour within the drawings.  You would hear the main colours.

Level 1: Very close to the drawing surface.  In this position the sounds you would hear would be made from recordings of the actual drawing process ….you would be ‘in’ the drawing. These sound tracks are really quite abstract and relate directly to the different types of mark used in the creation of the drawings.

On returning to Scotland in late May, I started work on the three large drawings.  I also spent many hours listening to the sound recordings Dan and I had made during our time in Oregon and selecting the elements that might best be used.  At this stage of things we invited Graham Byron to join the team and together the two of us created 18 different individual soundtracks for each of the three drawings.  I had no idea how we could mix these sound tracks and so it was great working with Graham who had been in the music industry as a sound engineer and musician for over 30 years.  In short, it was like drawing with sound ….quite amazing.

Dan, Neel and a colleague of theirs, Ryan (along with several other folk) have been working away in Seattle designing the technical side of this project and they will shortly be starting to build the installation.  Graham and I will be travelling out there on 17th October in time to help with the final installation ….adding the sound tracks to the work.  The piece opens to the public, along with many other installations and performance projects …on 21st October.

This is a very experimental piece of work created by 4  people with very different skills……

Neel Joshi: Microsoft researcher  ….this project was his idea.

Daniel Thornton: Independent film maker, landscape photographer and educator.

Graham Byron: Sound engineer and musician.

Keith Salmon: Visual and audio artist

This is a collaborative work and each element and area of expertise is as vital to the whole as the others.  This is also a very experimental piece and we will only know how well it works once the installation is complete and we start getting feedback from visitors to the work.  Hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy it.

Future plans

The Oregon Project is to return to Scotland in April 2017 where it will be exhibited in the gallery in Edinburgh University.

I think we are all hoping that The Oregon Project is just a start and that we will develop these initial ideas to create new and even more exciting pieces in the future.  We are very keen to create a large Scottish sound drawing in 2017.  Watch and listen to this space!

It’s that time of year again…. Courtyard Studios Open Weekend

Art Exhibition Ayrshire

Courtyard studios, Irvine

I’ve just been sat in my rocking chair in the studio, trying to decide how to organise the space for our forthcoming Open Studios Weekend this Saturday and Sunday 1st / 2nd October.  I would normally have got everything worked out by now and it would just be a case of spending a few days painting walls, the floor and then hanging and labelling the work.  This year it’s not quite as simple as I still have work to do in the studio for the next 2 days and then it will be one mad rush!  Of course, this year I have the upstairs space too and so I’ll be able to put out quite a large selection of work.

Anyway, it should be a good weekend and there will be at least 10 of the Courtyard Studios artists and makers opening their doors this year…… so, well worth a visit if you live in or around the area.  There is plenty of parking on the Harbour side and for anyone using public transport; the train station is just 10 minutes walk down Harbour St from the studios.  We have a fantastic variety of places to eat and get refreshments close by so everything and everyone’s tastes are covered I think.  For anyone who hasn’t been to Irvine Harbour side before, we also have a fantastic beach just 10 minutes walk in the other direction from the studio…..and once on this, you can walk all the way to Troon if you want.  Of course, being on the west coast of Scotland and it being October and all that…..we can’t guarantee fine weather, although over the 14 years we’ve held this event, we’ve actually had some very fine weather on many occasions.  Fingers crossed I guess!  Other places to visit close by include the Scottish Maritime Museum and the Magnum Sports Centre.

At the same time as the Open Weekend, we are also holding our annual group exhibition in the neighbouring Harbour Arts Centre and several of the artists will also be doing demonstrations.

Right then, I had better get back to the painting.  I do hope that you can get along this weekend and I look forward to meeting you.  Please forward or pass details of this event on to anyone you know who might be interested in coming along.  Thank you.

Wasps Courtyard Studios, Open Weekend 2016

Saturday / Sunday 1st / 2nd October

Open: 12 noon – 5pm both days

Entry: Free, all welcome

Courtyard Studios, 128 Harbour St, Irvine, Ayrshire, KA12 8PZ

Phew!

You’ll gather from the lack of blogs and other updates that things have continued to be rather hectic this summer. This then is just a quick update on what I’ve been working on since my last blog.

The majority of my time has been spent working on the Oregon / Seattle drawing and audio project. I finished the third big pastel drawing a few days ago and actually signed all three of the drawings! So then, that side of the work is now complete and all I have to do is find a safe way to ship them over to Seattle. My partner Nita has been searching the net for suitable shipping tubes and she has found something that should work well. On the audio side of the project, we are getting pretty close to completion. Graham and I have been mixing the individual one minute long sound tracks that will go with the drawings and we have just six more to mix. Graham is arriving at the studio later this afternoon and we plan to have a long session in the hope of getting these final tracks finished by the end of the evening. I’ve bought in a fresh pack of coffee and the coffee maker will no doubt be working overtime too!

scottish landscape paintings

‘A freezing February afternoon, Beinn-an-Dothaidh ‘

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

Of course, there is the other side of this project too ….the technical side of how to deliver the soundtracks to people viewing the drawings in the exhibition. This is all being done by our American team in Seattle, Dan Thornton, Neel Joshi and some of their colleagues. The work will be an installation piece and as such they will be having to build a purpose made space for the work and then rig it with all the technology and sound equipment. They are currently building a mock-up to test the system prior to creating the work in the “9e2” exhibition space. Nita and I will be travelling out to Seattle with Graham and his wife about a week before the “9e2” exhibition opens to the public and so we’ll be there in time to help with the final preparations. It’s really exciting although somewhat daunting if I’m honest. The “9e2” exhibition is a very big event with many teams of artists and scientists creating installation and performance works and so to be part of this is quite something. I’ll be posting links to the “9e2” website shortly so that you can get a better idea of what the event is all about. ….and if you live in or around Seattle, get some tickets.

Since finishing the 3 Oregon drawings I have been back working on a couple of new acrylic and pastel paintings. Both of these are in their early stages but are based on views Nita and I had when we climbed Beinn Odhair near Tyndrum last month. We were lucky to see the hills under perfect conditions that day and the paintings depict two very different viewpoints. One of them shows the view of Beinn Odhair from below, as you head north along the West Highland Way. The second painting is a scene looking from the summit of Beinn Odhair, across to the magnificent Crianlarich Hills. I’ll post images of them on my Face Book page soon: Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist.

scottish landscape painting

‘Below Clach Lethaidh, Winter’

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

Finally, I just wanted to give warning that I have decided to stop writing my regular blogs. For a good number of years now I have been writing a blog almost every week …… indeed, I’ve written over 290 blogs since starting. It has for the most part, been very enjoyable. More recently however, with the continued slow deterioration of my bit of sight, I’ve found that it is taking longer and longer to do. Now, to write the blog, source and send photos and to write a weekly “Artwork of the week” for the homepage…..well, it usually takes me over 4 hours. As everything else is also taking much longer to do, I’ve decided that I need to prioritise. The 200 hours I spend each year writing blogs should now I think, be spent promoting my work in more direct ways. So then, I’ll be writing a few more blogs up until the end of October but after that I’ll just be writing 4 quarterly “What’s been happening” updates. This isn’t great I know, but it is just a case of adapting to my circumstances ….which is what I’ve done ever since my sight started to deteriorate back in 1990. I hope those of you who have followed these blogs over the years have enjoyed some of them …and haven’t winced too much with the bad grammar etc.. For those of you who use Face Book, you’ll be able to follow the day to day development of the work, on my business Face Book page: Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist.

scottish landscape painting

‘Memories of a winter day, The Cairngorms’

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

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