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Latest Blogs | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings - Part 20

An Teallach commission almost finished

Posted by admin on January 17th, 2014

Near the summit of Mam-na-Gualainn - Starting point for a commission

Near the summit of Mam-na-Gualainn – Starting point for a commission

As anyone following my blog or FB Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist page will know, I’ve been working on a painting about An Teallach for a chap we met near the top of Mam na Gualainn back in the late summer.

It’s been a really interesting process and yesterday I decided that the painting was probably finished ….and I signed it!   I’ve been trying to create a painting that captures both, the idea of being at the summit of An Teallach as well as a more general feeling of being up high in the Scottish mountains.

The painting is now on the wall in my studio while I get on with some other work.  I’ll be able to look at it for a couple of weeks and make any final adjustments before declaring the painting finally finished!  It’s a difficult process knowing when a painting is finished or not and you have to give it  some time.  I’ve worked fairly intensely on this piece and as I’ve neared the end there’s been a lot of just sitting and looking rather than wielding of the paint brush.

 The photo here was taken near the summit of Mam na Gualainn …..it’s a strange starting point for a commission ….but a very fine one.  Hopefully the gentleman who we met here and who has commissioned the painting will like it.  More news of this in another blog.

‘Below Cul Mor, Assynt’

Posted by admin on January 9th, 2014
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‘Below Cul Mor, Assynt’

‘Below Cul Mor, Assynt’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2008, 80 x 110 cm

It’s that time of year again where we have to decide where to go for our 2 weeks in May.  The original plan had been to go somewhere completely new this year but we keep on thinking about Assynt again.  It is such a wonderful region and although we’ve done much walking there over the last six or seven years, these wonderful hills deserve at least one more visit…..so we may well try and book a caravan at Achmelvich again ….a more peaceful and beautiful spot you couldn’t wish to find.

We’ve stayed there on four different occasions and I did this painting after a very memorable day spent walking the three summits of Cul Mor.  Maybe if we do go back to Assynt this year, I’ll get to do another painting about this spectacular peak.

Back to normal

Posted by admin on January 9th, 2014

A rather full Loch Lomond

A rather full Loch Lomond

Well then, that’s Christmas by and 2014 well under way.  I hope you all had a good time over the festive period.  I had a very enjoyable few days off as well as a very good few days at the studio.  Nita was working twelve and half hours shifts on 27th & 28th December so I used these to the full working on the An Teallach commission.  After much banging of my head against the wall in the early stages of this painting, I’m at last starting to make headway and had another good long session yesterday that left me feeling quite optimistic that I’ll get it finished fairly soon.  It’s been quite a challenge but I’ve really enjoyed working on this piece and I’ve certainly learnt quite a lot.  I’m also thinking that I may have to revisit this fantastic mountain again sometime before too long…..I think we were last there about seven years ago.

Still no serious walking done recently though.  The weather has been pretty appalling and on the odd day when it wasn’t blowing a gale and falling with rain, either Nita or I were working.  We managed a short wander through the local country park on New Years Day which was nice ….it’s a beautiful mix of grass, bog and trees with lots of bird life and if you’re in the right place at the right time …deer.

Interesting patterns. Loch Lomond

Interesting patterns. Loch Lomond

We finally made it out yesterday we spent several very enjoyable hours wandering along two sections of the West Highland Way on the eastern shores of Loch Lomond.  Have to admit though, that we hadn’t banked on the water level in Loch Lomond being so high and we had to make detours around a couple of sections of the path that were completely flooded by the loch.  It certainly made for some interesting views with the trees and bushes around the edge all appearing to grow out of the water.   It wasn’t a huge walk, just a few miles, but it got the legs working again and we’re already starting to think about getting back onto the hills again next week with a bit of luck.

Ben Lomond from the shores of Loch Lomond

Ben Lomond from the shores of Loch Lomond

Looks like being a fairly busy year this year.  I already have work booked for an autumn show at a gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne  and then have the solo show and big drawing project at the end of the year lined up.  I’ve also just been asked to show a few pieces of work at the Frames Gallery in Perth as part of their spring exhibition, so I’ll look forward to that ….it’s a great gallery.  I’m hoping to do more work with photographer Dan Thornton later in the year.  Walking wise, well, we’ll have to see how it goes but I’m hoping to try and walk a few more Munro’s ….I’ve slipped back into bagging mode again and nine more Munro summits would take my tally up to 120!  I’ve always said I’d never be able to, or want to walk all 284 of them, but I do like the excuse to go and visit places I’ve never been before …so I guess my new target is to do half of them ….I should manage that within a few years with a bit of luck!

Must dash now and get myself down the studio.  My very best wishes to everyone who reads this for a great 2014.

‘Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui’

Posted by admin on December 22nd, 2013
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‘Snow shower below the east ridge of Ben Lui’

‘Snow shower, below the east ridge of Ben Lui’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2012, 80 x 80 cm

I thought I’d use this winter scene as the artwork of the week this week seeing as it was very cold when I left the studio this afternoon.  It was 3C, blowing a gale and the heavy rain was turning to sleet …..I guess up on the mountains it must have been white and wild!

This painting which is currently in my studio, was based on one of our visits to Ben Lui a number of years ago.  This original 80 x 80 cm painting costs £1250 but it is also available as a high quality reproduction ….see the ‘Buy prints’ section at the top of this page and follow the link.

If the gales calm down over the Christmas week I’m hoping that we might be able to get out for a walk in the hills …and perhaps the snow.  Anyway, however you spend your Christmas break, do have a great  time.

 

Happy Christmas from a wet and windy Irvine…

Posted by admin on December 22nd, 2013

Well then, I’m running very late this week, so it’s going to be a very short little blog.

We still haven’t managed to get out walking and I think that by the time we get a decent bit of weather, my legs with be well out of condition! Oh well, it really hasn’t been very good this last few weeks with very strong winds and heavy rain and snow on the mountains. So then, I’ve been getting on with the work at the studio. I’ve mainly been working on the An Teallach commission and it’s starting to come together now ….but much work still to be done I think.

photographer Daniel Thornton

photographer Daniel Thornton

The other thing I’ve been doing is working with the photographer Daniel Thornton who visited Irvine and stayed with Nita and me for a couple of days. He’s started work on a documentary film about my work and its connection with the Scottish hills and landscape. He spent quite a time recording interviews in the studio and is planning to do more on his next trip over to Scotland from his home town in Seattle. It was very interesting talking with Dan over the course of his visit as his own work is based on the landscape. We both approach our work very differently but both have a real love for the wild places …..he showed me a couple of the photographs he took when he was with us in Glen Rosa back in March and I have to say, they were superb. I was really impressed. I’m really looking forward to working with him further and maybe, if he’s up for it, we can put on an exhibition of our work together sometime.

Anyway, that’s this short blog done for the week. I’m back in the studio for the next two days and am then having a relaxing couple of days off with Nita over Christmas. Must admit that I’m really looking forward to putting my feet up and the paint brushes down!

My very best wishes to everyone who reads this and follows my work. I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and New Year. The next blog will probably be posted 2nd or 3rd of January.

‘From the summit of Ben Vrackie’

Posted by admin on December 12th, 2013
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‘From the summit of Ben Vrackie’

‘From the summit of Ben Vrackie’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 60 x 30 cm

If you’ve already read my blog you’ll have seen that my mind, (if not my boots) have been very much on Ben Vrackie this week.  I thought therefore, that it would be appropriate to use this painting as my artwork of the week.  I created this in 2009 following a walk on this hill but you’ll notice that it was one of the 60 x 30 cm size paintings.  Although I did a number of pieces this size I never felt too sure about this format.  This painting however, certainly worked well I think but in general I prefer working in the long thin, 76 x 23 cm format

This painting sold not too long after I completed it but the scene from the summit of Ben Vrackie with the broad sweeping grass covered ridge makes for a good composition and I reckon I might re-visit it after our next trip to this fine little hill.

Looking forward…. and back to Ben Vrackie

Posted by admin on December 12th, 2013
North from the summit of Ben Vrackie, December 12 2005

North from the summit of Ben Vrackie, December 12 2005

The plan had been, to write about a walk on Ben Vrackie, but in the end, we didn’t make it to Ben Vrackie or to any other hill this week for that matter.  It was my birthday on Monday and it had seemed a good idea to have a nice walk to celebrate, but when the forecast spoke of very low cloud, the lazy, couch potato side of me got the better and instead of the healthy walk, we had a lie-in, a wander into town and a meal and a couple of beers instead!   This was very nice and very relaxing as there aren’t many days when I don’t pick up a paint brush or spend hours doing studio related work on this computer.   So then, a great day on Monday ….but as I spent the last couple of days slowly getting on with the An Teallach commission, there’s not much to tell and it now leaves me with a gap for the blog!

But don’t think you’ve got off that lightly as by pure chance I came across some photos I took back in December 2005 when I’d been to Ben Vrackie with my pal Guy and another chap called Ian.  An even bigger chance is that when I looked to see exactly when we’d done the walk it turned out to be 12th December …today in other words, just eight years ago.

Big views from the summit of Ben Vrackie, December 12 2005

Big views from the summit of Ben Vrackie, December 12 2005

There was one great difference to today though.  As I look out of the window this morning at 10.30 am, it’s almost as dark as it was three hours ago…..it’s very grey and damp and not really a day for the hills.  On December 12th 2005 however it was bright and sunny and cool and the three of us had a wonderful walk up Ben Vrackie and indeed, I remember the low winter sun being particularly difficult as we scrabbled our way up the steep front of the hill.  Great big views from the top though and I think this was the first time I’d seen them as the previous couple of visits to the hill had been wild and grey.  I remember Guy pointing out the summits of Beinn a’Ghlo to the north and thinking that perhaps one day I’d get to reach them.

Anyway, the photos here were taken on that walk in 2005 and you can see why I want to go back.   It isn’t a long walk although it’s a bit of a drive to get to the base of it but it makes a perfect short winter day for me.  Hopefully we’ll get there again sometime in the next month or so.  In the meantime enjoy the fine weather in the photos!

‘Central Station, Glasgow’

Posted by admin on December 6th, 2013
'Central Station, Glasgow', Pastel, 2003

‘Central Station, Glasgow’

‘Central Station, Glasgow’, Pastel, 2003

If you follow this page regularly you’ll have seen this drawing several times, but even though I did it 10 years ago now, I still like it.  The original drawing is now on permanent display at the Royal National Institute for the Blind’s centre in Edinburgh.  It’s quite a large piece measuring I think about 140 cm x 80 cm and is based on Glasgow’s wonderfully impressive Central Station.  I catch the train to Irvine from here quite regularly and on a winter morning when the sun is shining through the glass roof it can be a confusing place for me with the bright light and deep shadows and silhouettes.

Anyway, this being almost Christmas and that, I thought I’d show this piece again as it now available as a high quality reproduction …..could make the perfect present for someone who loves Glasgow and its fabulous station.  Go to the ‘Buy Prints’ section at the top of this page and follow the link direct to the printer’s website.

Plans for some more footage

Posted by admin on December 6th, 2013

You may remember that earlier this year I met photographer Daniel Thornton at the Preview to my exhibition at ‘the gallery on the corner’.   After seeing the work he asked if he could come over to Irvine and take some film in the studio, which he did a few weeks later.  As we got talking we realised that we had similar interests in wild places and although our approaches to our respective art forms is somewhat different, we are both using landscape as the basis for our work.

Dan then joined us for a couple of walks in the hills.  He was interested in seeing how Nita guided me on rough paths and open hillsides and on our first walk, in Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran, he took quite a lot of film as well as recording a short interview between his friend David Feeney and I.   It was during this walk that I told them about my plans to create a large drawing based on this glen.  During our slow wander to the head of the glen and back, ideas of how I could develop the project were thrown around and I think that it was at the end of this walk that what at the start of the day had been just an idea, had by the close become a positive plan.

Following this day, I gradually honed the idea further and in late August put a detailed proposal together to do the large drawing as part of an exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre here in Irvine.   They were very keen on the project and I’ve been offered the gallery for about two months late next year.  This is perfect for me as it now gives me the whole of this winter to go back to Glen Rosa and start to really plan in more detail how I compose this large piece of work.

Dan, who is based in Seattle, is currently back over in Scotland and on Wednesday he visited my studio again.   After our walks in the spring he created a short 10 minute long film from the footage and recordings he made. ….if you haven’t already seen it then click on the link at the end of the blog.  Apparently he’s had a good response to it and is now keen to develop this into a longer documentary piece.  He asked whether Nita and I would be willing to spend several days with him so that he can shoot more footage.  He is also very interested in using the drawing project as an integral part of the film.  I’m very happy to do this as not only will it be a good way of promoting my work, it will be fun and very interesting too, especially as I’ll hopefully learn a lot more about Dan’s own work.

As he was leaving Irvine on Wednesday evening to travel back to Edinburgh, he asked whether I could find any photos showing some of my early work along with any photographs from some of my early walks.  I don’t really have many such photos to hand but the one above is one taken by my friend Mervin, of Nita and I on Cada Indris in mid Wales in late December 1987 …this was one of the first proper mountain walks Nita had done …we’d only met back in the summer that year.  Great hair, great hat, great day!!!  Not sure if this is really what Dan is after but it made me laugh  when I found it!

To see Dan’s short film ‘Walking with Keith’, follow the link below..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k33pTg2TnOw

December 1987 Cada Idris, Wales

December 1987 Cada Idris, Wales

‘From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor’

Posted by admin on November 28th, 2013
29 'From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor', Acrylic & Pastel, 76 x 23 cm

‘From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor’

‘From Ghlas Beinn, Rannoch moor’, Acrylic & Pastel, 76 x 23 cm

I thought I’d use this painting as my Artwork of the week owing to fact that we were back walking on this hill just last Sunday, (See my latest blog for details and photos).

This painting which is currently in my studio was created after our first visit to the hill a few years ago.  I used quite bold colours in this piece and have always liked it.  Ghlas Bheinn is the high point at the end of a small undulating escarpment that rises on the edge of Rannoch Moor.  Being less than 600 metres high it makes the perfect view point overlooking the moor and surrounded by bigger hills and mountains too.  Its close proximity to the A82 however does mean that despite the wonderful wild situation, you do tend to hear the sound of traffic drifting up to you from the road below.  This shouldn’t put you off though as this really is a little gem of a walk …especially in the winter.

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    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org