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Exhibitions | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings - Part 9

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South ….and south again

Posted by admin on June 3rd, 2011
Loch Dungeon from Millfire

Loch Dungeon from Millfire

I often say to people that I think we live in the perfect location for hill walking despite the fact that it is probably the flattest part of the whole of west Scotland.  We have the idyllic Isle of Arran just an hour away across the water; the southern Highlands starting just an hour’s drive north and the southern uplands just an hour’s drive to the south.  This is all true, but to be honest the majority of our hill walking trips are either in the Highlands or over on Arran …..rarely do we venture into the Southern Uplands.  We’ve visited the Merrick on a few occasions along with the wonderfully named and prominent and craggy little hill of Curleywee.  I also joined Air na Creagan for a long rough walk up over and around Shalloch on Minnoch, (the highest point in Ayrshire I think) but apart from these we’ve only been to a handful of other places south of Irvine.

We had been hoping to get out for another walk last weekend but the forecasts for the west and eastern hills wasn’t great …gales and snow down to 700 – 900 m.  Looking ahead it seemed like Tuesday would be the best opportunity for some bright weather.  So then, on Sunday we decided instead to take a drive south to visit the Scottish Showcase Gallery in Kirkcudbright.  I was invited to show some work there a few months ago and had sent five paintings down …but I’ve been too busy recently to get down to see the gallery.  I spent a lot of time painting last week so taking a few hours off to visit Kirkcudbright seemed a good idea.  It’s about 70 miles from Irvine to Kirkcudbright but the journey takes you through some wonderful scenery.   The weather too was pretty fine …windy but with bright hot sunshine and just the occasional heavy shower ….why hadn’t we thought of checking out the forecast for the southern hills?

From Corserine

From Corserine

We found the gallery close to the harbour in Kirkcudbright and had a good look around.  It has a good selection of work and on this fine Sunday there were a number of folk doing the rounds.  My five paintings are on the wall at the head of the stairs …so if you visit, you can’t miss them.  I’ve never been to Kirkcudbright before and it looked like a busy little place.  There’s a number of galleries and studios along with a castle, harbour and I understand, beach.  We were also directed to a hotel where they served an excellent pint of beer.  So then, it makes for a very pleasant day out if you live within striking distance ….and as we found, the journey to and from it is very enjoyable in its own right with for us, views across to a whole number of different hills.

 

NW from Milldown

NW from Milldown

Perhaps because of this, when it came to deciding where to go for our Tuesday walk, Nita suggested we find somewhere in the southern hills for a change.  It seemed like a good idea and so in bright sunshine we found ourselves driving back down the same road we travelled the previous Sunday.  We turned off the A713 a short distance before St John’s Town of Dalry and headed along a single track road for a few miles to reach a car park near Forest Lodge.  This is probably the nearest point for a walk up Corserine …the highest point along the ridge known as the Rhinns of Kells.  As with many of the hills in this area, the lower slopes are blanketed with conifer forest and getting to the base of the hill involved walking for almost an hour and a half along a series of forestry tracks.  The way was signposted but it was still a relief when we eventually saw open hillside ahead of us and a convenient stile over the boundary fence.  The hillside rose steeply in front of us and in the bright sunshine the colours looked wonderful.  A minor path led away up the hill and picked its way up through a series of crags to reach easy angled slopes.  The views out over the forest grew as we gained height and soon became huge as we reached the large summit plateau of Corserine at just over 800m.  Although we’d had warm sun all the way up, once on the top we were in the strong and cold wind …no wonder they were forecasting snow on the bigger tops to the north.

Our route lay SSE along the undulating ridge, over the craggy little tops of Millfire and Milldown to Meikle Millyea before descending back to the forest via Meikle Lump.  This really was a beautiful and very peaceful walk.  The ridge as I say, was littered with minor rocky crags and a series of minor lochs and pools…..and the views .wow!  It was also exceedingly quiet.  We’d followed two chaps up to Corserine but they must have returned a different route to us and we saw no one for the rest  of the day.  The wildlife seemed to be enjoying the sun as well and Nita spotted numerous beasties including a lizard, and on Meikle Millyea, three wild goats.

Meikle Lump is as the name suggests …a bit of a lump, being steep and craggy just above the forest.  We managed to find what seemed to be the steepest possible route through the crags …requiring both of us to resort to sitting on our backsides and carefully lowering ourselves down some slippery rocks and heather.  Then, the difficulties started!

Our map showed the forest edge and various tracks.  When we looked down …the forest had changed somewhat since the map had been printed.  They had been harvesting areas of it, new tracks had been constructed and nothing matched the map!  Suffice to say, it took us an hour and a half  to find our way the two or so miles back to the car.  Thankfully we had the GPS and so got this out and we could monitor our position as we followed the new forestry tracks.  After what seemed a good time we reached one of the original tracks marked on the map and could then head for the car.  We got back to it at half past seven …just nine hours after setting out …and were promptly set on by a swarm of midges …summer had arrived!

Below are the five paintings currently exhibited at the Scottish Showcase Gallery in Kirkcudbright.  To find out more about this gallery visit their website: www.showcasegallery.co.uk

 

 

'From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor'

'From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor'

 

 

'Approaching weather, Glen Carron'

'Approaching weather, Glen Carron'

 

 

'Above Glen Shee, winter morning'

'Above Glen Shee, winter morning'

 

 

'On descending Ben Oss'

'On descending Ben Oss'

 

 

'Autumn hillside, above Crieff'

'Autumn hillside, above Crieff'

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A somewhat uneventful week!

Posted by admin on May 27th, 2011

'Working drawing - on Braebag'

'Working drawing - on Braebag'

It’s amazing to think that this is the eighty second blog …and there may have been a couple that never got a number.  Whatever number it is …it’s quite a lot.  Number eighty two though, isn’t I’m afraid, going to be a classic …just a short ramble about not very much!

It’s just over a week since we were out on the hill near Loch Tay and apart from yesterday (Thursday) I’ve spent nearly all my time either doing work on the computer or painting down the studio.  We had hoped to get out onto a hill again this week, but the weather has, like in most of Scotland and Northern Ireland it seems, been pretty horrendous.  My sister living down in Shropshire is complaining about how dry it is there and how she’s watering the garden with the washing up water.  No such problems here this last week – I think it rained most days.   Add to this a very strong wind including a real gale on Monday and well it doesn’t do much for passing trade at the studio.  Surprisingly though I did have one couple visit at the height of the gale on Monday.  Donned in waterproofs, they’d made the walk up the harbour side to the sea and I think may have come into the studio to get a break from the wind more than for the art!  However, I am doing them an injustice, as it turned out they were sailors and were indeed sheltering from the storm …so, no doubt used to wet and windy weather.  Compared with many folk across Scotland and Northern Ireland, we were I guess, quite lucky that day.  We retained our power supply and train services and there seemed to be very little damage done …with the exception of a beautiful cherry blossom tree on Bank Street that was split in two during the storm.

'Working drawing - Quinag'

'Working drawing - Quinag'

I had planned to go and collect ten framed pictures from the Waverley Gallery on the Monday but decided this might be a little foolish …get caught carrying and 80 x 80cm painting by and 80 mph gust of wind and I’d probably have ended up in Kilmarnock!  We picked the work up the next day instead and I’m very pleased with the way it looks.  I still have one painting to complete and about five others to go into empty frames ready for the show at Blairmore Gallery.  While I’m doing the painting, Nita has kindly agreed to put the other pieces into their frames …so we should have everything ready in time.   We’re delivering the work on Thursday 9th June ready for opening on the Friday 10th.  I haven’t quite yet decided the exact number and selection to go up but it will probably be around 18 – 20 paintings and drawings.

Last week I said I was hoping to get some ideas worked out for new paintings and I spent one of my days last week playing around with some drawings.  I am keen to try and get some paintings done based on both Quinag and Braebag in Assynt.  They are very different hills, the former being steep sided and quite complex, the latter just a simple quartz covered whale back ……but both quite magnificent in their own ways.  Here are two of the working drawings I did the other day.

Back to the studio now and back to the painting.  I have I admit been struggling somewhat with one of my paintings.  I think I really ought to leave it sit for a while and get on with new work …but, I may just have to have another go when I get down there in an hour or so!  We’re hoping to get out for another walk on Sunday so long as conditions aren’t too bad, so maybe next week I’ll have a little more to report on.

 

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Big is not always best-but it may be the right way to go

Posted by admin on April 29th, 2011

'Approaching snow shower, above Braemar'

'Approaching snow shower, above Braemar'

Many years ago, many many years ago as it now seems…when I was in my teens and still working towards my ‘O’ level art at Welshpool High School,  I was told by my art teacher (a Mr Roberts) that when painting it was vitally important to consider every inch of the paper or canvas with equal importance.  This bit of advice has always stuck with me and now that I’m working more regularly on larger pieces, it is something that I am constantly reminding myself of.  It may seem obvious but with constraints of time and cost of materials it can be easy to forget.

The reason for thinking along these lines is that I’ve been considering my own work recently, especially the size of the work I do.  Many of my paintings have been quite small and this has I have to admit, been part due to the need to sell.  That’s certainly not the only reason but it is often one of the deciding factors.  Quite simply, it’s easier to sell smaller works if for no other reason than that most people don’t have the room or the finances for large work.

'The saltings, Irvine harbour side'

'The saltings, Irvine harbour side'

Painting on a small scale is though I think, just as challenging for the painter as working on a large or even grand scale.  It certainly concentrates the mind and focuses ones attention on the composition but I am starting to feel a little trapped when working on this scale now.  I’ve always done the odd larger piece but never really spent a period of time creating larger paintings…..until last year that is.  When I went to Speyer I realised that this would be a chance to do exactly this.  During my stay at the Kunstlerhaus in Speyer I completed 17 pieces of work, all but 2 of them being 80 x 80 cm or larger.  This was very enjoyable at the time and I really didn’t have too many thoughts about selling these larger works…..this was a scholarship and all my accommodation and living expenses were being paid.  At the end of the scholarship though, much of the work sold …even the large 400 x 150 cm drawing.

'The artist with 'Late December afternoon, above Wanlockhead'

'The artist with 'Late December afternoon, above Wanlockhead'

I’ve now been self employed as an artist for just on two years and over that time I’ve developed my work and my art practice quite well.  I’ve increased my sales over this period but have started to come to the realisation that it may be difficult to earn a living through the smaller work.  With my sight as it is, there is a limit to the number of pieces I can do in any one year …I really work quite slowly, and as such, there is a limit to the amount I can reasonably expect to earn.  I have then been starting to think that it would make a lot more sense both financially as well as artistically, to concentrate on larger pieces.  My main aim as an artist has always been to try to do good work …not just to sell and I certainly think that working on a larger scale is where my best work lies.

I am certainly not going to abandon the small pieces entirely …I enjoy doing them and they quite often themselves lead to larger paintings.  I am though, going to put a much greater emphasis on the bigger paintings and as I have the opportunity in October of returning to the Kunstlerhaus in Speyer with an exhibition of my Scottish landscapes I’m doing large pieces for this.

So then, it’ll be interesting to see quite how this gradual change in emphasis works out.  I’ll have to target slightly different outlets and probably look to generate commissions but I’m sure it’ll do me good artistically and in the longer run, financially too. Winning the Jolomo Award in 2009 will allow me to take this ‘gamble’ secure in the knowledge that I can afford to lose some sales of smaller works in order to generate better and potentially more cost effective larger paintings.  I must of course remember the words of Mr Roberts and think about every square inch of the painting surface with equal consideration.  So often when I look around galleries I notice that as the paintings get bigger, the paint quality diminishes and the colours become thin and flat.  I must not fall into this trap.

 

Work in progress

"Work in progress"

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It’s been a busy week….

Posted by admin on March 25th, 2011

On Beinn Damhain

'On Beinn Damhain'

It’s been a busy week this week with paintings to paint, paintings to deliver and a couple of paintings to pack ready for shipping to the USA…..and this on the back of what turned out to be a very tiring walk on Saturday.

Firstly then, the walk.  The plan was to walk the small and probably rather unfrequented hill, Beinn Damhain.  This lies just to the NW of the northern end of Loch Lomond and is a hill I first visited with my friend Guy about eighteen months ago on a very wet and windy day.  On that occasion we never got to the top, turning back not far below the summit in very unpleasant weather.  It seemed just the place to return on Saturday as we were expecting there to be a lot of snow on the bigger hills and Beinn Damhain at just over 680m we thought would be clear of much of it.  Wrong!  As it turned out the snow was down to around 300m and the accumulations increased rapidly as you gained height.  The weather was quite fine though with the heavy dark broken clouds well above our hill and indeed, well above the surrounding Munro’s too.

On Beinn Damhain

'On Beinn Damhain'

We had followed a broad track (built to service the hydro scheme) for several kilometres before heading up rough hillside heading for the lonely little Lochan Beinn Damhain.  Even by the time we reached the loch the snow was deep and made for difficult walking.  We carried on though around the loch and then very slowly up the gentle slopes beyond, avoiding all the steep ground.  It was I have to say, very hard work and very time consuming, but the views as we gained height were fantastic.  Every now and again the sun would break through the dark cloud and illuminate one of the hills just as if with a giant spot light.  Suffice to say, there was much puffing and panting, swearing and cursing before we eventually stood at the top …and it took us five hours, but it did feel good finally standing there.  The descent really wasn’t much easier and we were starting to get a little concerned about the time and daylight.  We had head torches with us so as long as we could get back to the hydro track before dark all would be well.  As it turned out, despite our seemingly very slow progress we were back down to the track by just before five o’ clock and an hour later we arrived at the car, tired and with very sore legs.  To be honest I felt shattered after all that thick soft snow …it was a much harder day than many a Munro we’ve walked and it really was quite an experience.

The Summit of Beinn Damhain

The Summit of Beinn Damhain

The rest of the week has involved making, packing and delivering paintings.  On Tuesday we had a very pleasant few hours taking three paintings up to Blairmore Gallery near Dunoon.  It was great seeing Sylvia and Steve, the owners, and seeing how good the gallery was looking.

Wednesday saw us heading over to Edinburgh to deliver four paintings to The Gallery on the Corner.  As we’d been doing a lot of driving in the past few weeks we decided to travel by train.  This wasn’t as difficult as it might sound as the four paintings were all reasonably small and thankfully the trains not too busy.

It’s just a case of paint, paint, and paint for a few days now as I’m taking a couple of days off next week to join a couple of old college friends to do some walking and possibly even a spot of paddling.  Seeing as the three of us have only met up together once before in the 28 years since all leaving Falmouth School of Art ….well there’s a bit of catching up to be done and no doubt a pint or two to be had.

 

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Wide open spaces

Posted by admin on February 25th, 2011
In the studio

In the studio

For the first time since I moved into my present studio space …the walls are almost completely empty.  Usually I have paintings hanging on the biggest wall and there are always others propped against it too.  For a month now though I have the extra wall space as nearly all my work is out on exhibition.

I’ve wanted to get down to doing some slightly larger pieces for a long time and as soon as all the work was away, I bought myself four biggish boards and started working on them ….well, three of them to date.  These boards are all 122 x 61 cm and so make for quite a good sized painting …certainly larger than I normally work on.

For a long time now I’ve been rather tentatively using thicker paint.  I bought a selection of colours from the Liquitex range of super heavy bodied acrylic paint. It’s wonderful thick sticky stuff but for a long time I didn’t know what to do with it!  As I say, I was very tentative with my use of it at first but as time has gone by I’ve become somewhat bolder.  So then, these new larger paintings are my attempt to take this process further, to try and work with more and thicker paint, bigger bolder marks and in a slightly more abstract fashion.  As such I decided that seeing as I’m working on a different scale and in a slightly different way, I may as well paint a different subject too.

New painting - "Harbour side"

New painting - "Harbour side"

My studio as you know by now is situated on the harbour side at Irvine.  My front door and window look out across the road and quay to the River Irvine.  On the opposite side of the river is a huge area of saltings that lie between the Irvine and Garnock rivers.  The view from my studio window is constantly changing.  On the high tides the saltings can disappear completely beneath the water, wee outcrops and an odd bush being the only land above water.  Then gradually the land begins to appear, first in long strips and then quite rapidly to leave just pools of water before on really low tides, there being no water to see at all from my studio.  Add to this the constantly changing weather conditions and light …and great change in the colours due to the season and well, it’s quite an amazing place to work next to.

New painting - "Irvine Harbour side"

New painting - "Irvine Harbour side"

The new paintings then are based on this very simple but at the same time complex (does that make sense?) view.  I got thinking about this a few weeks ago when after a morning of heavy rain and dark brooding clouds, the conditions suddenly started to improve and small breaks appeared in the cloud allowing bursts of intensely bright light to fall through and onto areas of the saltings.  The colours were amazing.  The sky was a heavy dark purple grey blue and the far horizon a thin dark line.  The saltings though were an intense bright mass of yellows and then back to ochre’s, olive greens and umbers in the shadow in the foreground.  It was beautiful.  I thought about photographing it but realised that it probably wouldn’t capture much of this and so instead just grabbed my small digital voice recorder (used to record meetings, lists of things to do and what to buy on my next visit to Asda) and simply tried to describe what I could see …a sort of audio sketch.  The conditions, light and colours changed rapidly over the next hour and so I made four or five short recordings and decided to use these as the basis for my first couple of paintings.

I’d never really thought about using the voice recorder as a kind of sketch book before and it has been pleasing how well it’s working for me.  The first two paintings have developed quite well and I’m now starting on two others that are going to be about the view at or around high tide …and in different light….I’ve been making further recordings during the last few days while the high tides have coincided with the best daylight.   I’ve tried to use just my bigger brushes …a one and a half inch flat brush being the smallest and then working right up to my large old six inch bristle house painting brushes.  I have still drawn into these with pastel but this is quite limited and this just helps to create a nice balance of marks rather than being a main feature as in a lot of my previous paintings.  It really has been an interesting couple of weeks and at long last this is much more what I’ve wanted to do.

Work in progress - Studio E

Work in progress - Studio E

Of course having the funds to be able to purchase the materials (these paints are quite expensive …and a six inch house brush swallows a lot of paint) and being able to afford to spend time experimenting …is all down to the Jolomo Award.  Without it I’d be forced to keep producing smaller more sellable paintings rather than trying to develop new and better and perhaps more challenging work.  I was a lucky chap back in June 2009 when I won that award and its funding has supported me to this point and will probably do so for at least a couple of years more.  The 2011 Jolomo Awards are in progress now and so it’ll be great to see who eventually wins through when the awards are announced in June.  Who ever it is, they’ll certainly find it makes a huge difference to their career …it’s certainly made a huge change to my work as an artist.

Anyway, I’ve got until the 12th March before the show ends at the Strathearn Gallery and my studio gets some what more cluttered again.  That said, the gallery have sold a number of pieces to date so that has been very encouraging …and of course it means I’ll have to keep painting …I have a busy year ahead.   There should be a list on my website shortly, giving details of forthcoming exhibitions throughout 2011.

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Light relief

Posted by admin on February 11th, 2011
Fairly moor

Fairlie moor

If you’ve been reading these blogs over the last month or so you’ve probably gathered that there’s been one thing very much on my mind …the exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery.  Getting all the work finished, framed, photographed, catalogued and wrapped …has been quite a lot of work.

On Monday we went into town and hired a Transit van, and went back to the house to load all the pictures.  Of course, after several weeks of generally mild weather, Monday morning dawned very wet but cold …just 3 C here in Irvine and the forecast of snow for the Central Belt of Scotland …great!  The rain was really heavy here and we decided we could afford to wait a while to see if it would ease before loading the paintings into the van.  Thankfully it did improve and we were able to get everything on board in a relatively dry state.  The journey up to Crieff though was interesting. The rain turned to snow on the M77 and we had a mixture of rain, sleet and snow all the way.

Towards Arran from Whatside Hill

Towards Arran from Whatside Hill

By the time we reached Stirling the ground all around was white and on leaving the A9 to take the smaller road to Crieff ….well, everything was really quite white, including the road!  This particular road goes up quite high at one point and Nita found herself driving a hired Transit van containing almost a years worth of work, along a snow, slush, ice and water covered road.  At one point we went through a huge pool of water that sprayed up onto the screen and made it impossible to see.  No sooner had the wipers cleared this than a large lump of snow fell from an overhanging tree and once again covered the screen!  At this point, Nita just started laughing …well, it was rather funny.

Overlooking the Firth of Clyde

Overlooking the Firth of Clyde

We got to Crieff unscathed though and quickly had the work unloaded and into the gallery. What a relief, now it was in somebody else’s hands.  Mind you, I still fretted for a couple of days about whether the work would look any good but was most relieved to receive an email from the gallery yesterday to say it was all up and looking great …phew!  Oh, and they’d sold a piece as well …so a fine start.  I’m really looking forward to the preview tomorrow.

After all this, I really needed to take a wee break and yesterday in clear sunny calm weather I went for a smashing little walk with my friend Guy.    He’d plotted a nice route that led up onto Fairlie Moor and along its western edge over Whatside Hill before descending into and then walking through Kelburn Glen and on along the shore to Largs.  It made a great little day, catching the train to Fairlie and then returning by train in the evening from Largs.

Overlooking Great Cumbrae

Overlooking Great Cumbrae

As we were right on the edge of the North Ayrshire coast we had superb views out over the Firth of Clyde, across Great Cumbrae and Little Cumbrae islands to their bigger neighbours of Bute and Arran.  From this location you get an interesting view of the Arran Hills.  In the bright sunshine, the colours looked lovely and it was definitely very spring like.

Both Guy and I tend to like the bigger hills and the wilder places but this really was an excellent walk and one to be recommended to anyone living in North Ayrshire.  For me, the surprise came towards the end.  On descending into Kelburn Glen, we followed the path that led down the glen through beautiful woods and above the roar of the river as it poured over a whole series of waterfalls.  It was really quite spectacular especially with the late afternoon sunlight illuminating all the trees and rocks.


In Kelburn Glen

In Kelburn Glen

Kelburn Glen Waterfall

Kelburn Glen Waterfall


A fish supper while waiting for our train home finished off the day nicely and I’m now already thinking about the next walk.  With the exhibition opening tomorrow morning, I can now just get back to the painting and getting some more walks done.  I’ve started a new piece of work based, not on the hills, but on the view across the river and saltings outside my studio.  It’s a bit different but still Scottish landscape.  I’m quite enjoying this slight tangent and it’ll be interesting to see where it leads.

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Calling in the professionals

Posted by admin on January 28th, 2011
Summit of Tryfan, Easter 1948

Summit of Tryfan, Easter 1948

As I’ve said in the past, I’ve always enjoyed taking photographs ….an interest (like hill walking) that I got from my father.  Back before I was ever thought of, my dad used to supplement his wage (he worked in one of the big printers in London) by taking wedding photographs.  His real love though was photographing the places he visited, the gentle rural scenes he found in the post war Essex and Sussex countryside …and of course the mountains of North Wales which he visited with several of his mates in the late 40’s and early 50’s.  Of course it was all black and white then and many are the tales of his being in trouble with my gran for staining the sink and bath with photographic chemicals …the family bathroom was his dark room at that time.  He certainly came up with some really nice images and after his death a couple of years ago I found a large box in his house, full to the brim with the photos he’d taken at this time.  To be honest I just haven’t had time to look through them all, but amongst the pictures I have found is a wonderful shot he took on the Llanberis Pass in 1948.  At the time he and his mates used to ride large motorbikes and on the occasion of this photo …one of them had broken down.  The picture shows the AA man along with several of his friends, standing by the machine …and the AA man with his own bike and side car too.  Quite incredible.

Carmarthen Fa

Carmarthen Fan

But I digress …he of course encouraged me to take photos and after a couple of small ‘snapper’ cameras I bought my first SLR …the trusty old Zenith that I’ve mentioned before and the great little Weston light meter.  For a long time this all worked well and although I was never a great photographer I did on occasions take some nice pictures.  This though all started to go array when my sight got worse.  Film and developing / printing was not so cheap and when many of the photos started to contain odd fingers and thumbs then it was time to think again.  Thankfully this coincided with the appearance of the digital camera and so I moved back to a fairly simple ‘snapper’ …but this times a digital one. This has worked well for me and it is what I use when we’re out on the hill.

Recording my work though has proved slightly more problematic.  I’ve never really known what I’m doing when it comes to photographing paintings indoors and although the images have been adequate, the quality in many of them (I sure some of you have noticed) has not been all that it should have been.  This was bought home to me last year when you may remember I was asked to write an article for ‘The Nature of Scotland’  …the magazine produced by Scottish Natural Heritage.  I wrote the article and was asked to provide some images of work to go with it.  I selected about half a dozen and sent everything off…..and it was all fine.  Then the editor contacted me to say that they wanted to use one of my paintings for the wrap around cover ….wow …what an opportunity.  Around that time I’d completed a large piece (200 x 100 cm) and this seemed the ideal painting for the purpose.  I sent off the image and sat back and waited to see the resultant magazine with my painting covering it.  But the bad news came.  When the printers had enlarged the image I’d sent, they found that it wasn’t sharp!  It looked ok on a small scale but not when increased to A3.  With that I lost the opportunity of having my painting on the front of all those magazines.  Of course the article went ahead inside but I’d lost the cover …there wasn’t time to get another photo taken and they used a rather spectacular landscape photo instead.

'Overlooking Glen Coe'

'Overlooking Glen Coe'

'Breaking mists, the Pap of Glen Coe'

'Breaking mists, the Pap of Glen Coe'

So then ….it’s taken me a bit of time to learn from this ….but at last I’ve taken the plunge and called in the assistance of a professional photographer to record my work.  It was a good experience watching him work and seeing all the effort he went to, to get it right …well it’s no surprise that I couldn’t do it myself!  He photographed most of the work I had available …much of it work that will go into my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff.  I’m pleased with the results and it means that if I ever have another chance to have work published, or if I decide to have prints made, or sometime in the future want to produce a small book about my paintings …well, I’ll have the best quality images available…..no more disappointments!

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‘In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’

Posted by admin on January 8th, 2011
'In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 30 x 30 cm (Ref 158)

'In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran'

‘In Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 30 x 30 cm (Ref 158)

It snowed again here yesterday evening and they’re forecasting a little more later this afternoon. Everything certainly looks very beautiful again and when I was down on the harbour side earlier this morning, the snow covered mountains over on the Isle of Arran were standing out quite clearly ….viewed through my monocular that is! It made me realise quite how fast 2010 seems to have gone by …it is only just under a year since Nita and I spent a very memorable day walking in Glen Rosa, spending time to sit and sketch and photograph the stunning Arran peaks covered in snow.

I did a number of small drawings that day and from these I developed several paintings. This piece, although quite small (30 x 30cm) was probably the most successful and it has just reminded me that on the day we were there, we decided we needed to return and walk Beinn a’ Chliabhain from Glen Rosa via Coire Beag. It certainly looked a nice route – better than following the rather worn and more traditional path up the side of the Garbh Allt.

Anyway, this is one of the paintings that will be displayed at The Strathearn Gallery as part of my solo exhibition ‘On the hill – impressions of the Scottish upland landscape’. The exhibition will run from February 12th – March 12th 2011. Full details nearer the time.

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Getting there

Posted by admin on January 7th, 2011

Every few days now for the last month or so, I’ve stopped what I’m doing and spent five minutes counting paintings! Not that I’m panicking or anything ….just checking that I’ll have enough work ready for my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery …..that opens on February 12th….PANIC!

Seriously though, I’m starting to get there and yesterday finished what should be the final two new pieces for the show. I now have a few more than the 45 pieces required and it’s just a case of getting everything into frames and ready….simple really, I don’t know what I’ve been worrying about!

The preview of the exhibition is on Saturday 12th February and starts at 11am and I have to get the work to the gallery on the 7th in order to give them time to hang the show. We normally take the work to galleries in our car but even the wide open spaces in the back of this Citroen Nemo aren’t big enough to carry all the work for this show and so I’m going to have to arrange for a courier to take the work for me.

I’ve been told there are a couple of specialist art couriers based in Glasgow so a bit of searching on the Internet is called for soon I think.

I’m also planning to arrange for a professional photographer to visit the studio and record all the work prior to it going to the gallery. Although the photos I take have been adequate up till now I think it’s time to get some top quality photos taken. I’ll be sending these images to the gallery and so all the work in the exhibition should be available to view on-line at their website from early February with a bit of luck …full details nearer the time.

Of course, having 45 pieces of work ready and framed, it’s creating a bit of a storage problem …I can hardly move in house or studio for pictures either lent against or hanging on walls. Even so, it’s getting quite exciting seeing it all coming together, and it’ll be the first time I’ve ever exhibited so much work together at one time.

Right well, it’s a short blog this week as I have much to do and little of great interest to tell. But included with this blog is a short video clip I took in the studio yesterday. It shows the newly finished large (ish) painting on the wall, and a new 80 x 80 cm piece on the easel.

Next week is another busy one as I’ve been invited over to spend a few hours at the Jolomo studio. I’m really looking forward to meeting him and seeing where he does his work. Eck…it’s a hard life ….but someone has to do it!

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Backward and forward

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2010

Mike,me and the tandem - fun days in Speyer

Mike,me and the tandem - fun days in Speyer

I’m sat here, typing this on New Years’ Eve and looking back, it has been a pretty good year. I have certainly got a lot of work done and sales of paintings, if rather slow, have been quite steady, despite all the economic woes.

I’ve had work displayed in a good number of group exhibitions this year, but I guess the biggest thing to happen, of course, was my four month long visit to Speyer. This time last year, I still didn’t know whether my application had been successful. Apparently, a young New York artist and I were both being considered for the scholarship……but at a final meeting of the Kunstlerbund, towards the end of January, I got the vote. It seems likely that my age (at 51 I’m knocking on a bit) gave me the edge! The young chap from New York is doing some great work by all accounts and will hopefully be successful either this year or in the future.

As anyone who followed my blogs through the summer will know, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, met some wonderful people and superb artists. It certainly gave me a great opportunity to paint completely different subject matter and the response to it by the people of Speyer was hugely encouraging.

Art aside, one of the most memorable days in Speyer took place in the final week, when Michael Lauter (one of the Kunstlerbund artists) turned up with a tandem. He had also brought along an electrical bicycle for Anita. The ensuing few hours cycling along the Rhine were wonderful. I hadn’t been on a bicycle for over twenty years and it really was so funny being on a tandem…..I split my trousers on the saddle, we ended up cycling in circles, opposite a nuclear power station and cycled rather precariously through a flooded section of the path….with Michael shouting, ‘’Power, power!’’ I obviously wasn’t peddling hard enough.

Late evening, Achmelvich, Assynt

Late evening, Achmelvich, Assynt

Despite being away all summer, we have still managed to fit in a reasonable number of days on the hills this year. We’re still not very fit though and although I’m not really a New Years’ Resolution kind of person, we have decided we need to make special efforts to get fit now that January has all but arrived.

Ben More Assynt from Conival

Ben More Assynt from Conival

As I may have already said in past blogs, we are heading back to Achmelvich for two weeks in May. Maysie and Durrant Macleod, owners of Hillhead Caravans sent us through the booking form just last week and we have become all excited…the long, light days of May really don’t seem too far away. We’ve already been talking about having a third attempt at reaching Ben More Assynt. But for me, it’ll require a very long day of fine weather to do this…hence the need to get fit! I have also realised (not that I’m a bagger of hills of course) that I am only seven Corbetts short of fifty and so this should give me something to aim for in 2011.

Right, well, there’s lots to be done this year, not least getting the final few pieces finished for my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in February. So, it will be a few beers tonight but then back to the studio tomorrow afternoon. Best wishes for 2011.

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