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Latest Blogs | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings - Part 47

3oo miles apart

Posted by admin on March 5th, 2011
In Carding Mill Valley, Shropshire

In Carding Mill Valley, Shropshire

We have just returned from a great little walk…in the Shropshire Hills, not far from the Welsh border. We’re visiting family and as it has been a beautiful day, we decided we might as well make the most of it.

Shropshire is a lovely county and seems to me to be a great mix of the best of England and Wales. The Shropshire Hills are not huge, but offer wonderful views all around. We didn’t actually walk up any of these hills today, instead, just took a gentle amble through Carding Mill Valley… one of the beauty spots of Shropshire that lies on the edge of the Long Mynd. In bright sunshine the rough hillsides of grass, rocky outcrops and gorse were looking particularly good, the early spring colours looking particularly vibrant under a deep blue, clear sky. Having lived in Shropshire for a number of years, I have explored this area on a good few occasions and it is one place I will always enjoy returning.

In the Ochills, near Stirling

In the Ochills, near Stirling

Strangely, this area of low, steep sided hills, intersected by deep, stream filled valleys is rather similar to the Ochill hills, near Stirling, where we were walking just last Saturday. On this occasion we did a bigger walk than today’s… completing a lovely circular walk over Ben Ever, Ben Cleuch, Ben Buck and a final steep but short haul up and over the rather wonderfully named hill, The Nebbit. We had travelled to these hills in an attempt to avoid low cloud and rather grey, damp conditions that were forecast for the west and found ourselves in bright sunshine, with just the occasional dark, heavy shower.

Forth Plain

Forth Plain

These hills rise abruptly to the north of the Forth Plain and on days like this, when the weather is fine and the air cold and clear, the views south from any of the tops are quite impressive. The river reflected the bright sun and with my monocular, I could even make out the Forth road and rail bridges. The plain is a wonderful patchwork of fields and buildings…one that has already been the subject for one of my smaller paintings…’Forth fields’.

We are back home to Scotland in a couple of days and I am already looking forward to getting back to my new big paintings…an image of the latest one can now be seen on my face book  page: Keith Salmon, Scottish landscape artist. I have had a very good response to this picture and it will be good to try and get it finished and to start a fourth and possibly fifth, large piece. I will be bringing work back to the studio after my exhibition in Crieff closes on the 12th, so not long to get these done!

 

‘October morning, Glen Lyon’

Posted by admin on February 25th, 2011

7 'October morning, Glen Lyon', Acrylic & Pastel, 22 x 22 cm

'October morning, Glen Lyon'

‘October morning, Glen Lyon’, Acrylic & Pastel, 22 x 22 cm

This is another of my small Glen Lyon pieces. I met a couple at the preview to the exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery who said they always made an effort to go to Glen Lyon each year to see the wonderful autumn colours. It certainly is quite spectacular if you catch it at just the right time. Although the hills surrounding the glen are high and wild, in the base of the glen there is a wonderful array of trees, both broad leaf and conifer. Pencil it in to your diary if you’re in striking distance of Glen Lyon this October!

This painting is currently on display as part of my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff. Details of all the work in the exhibition can be found at: www.strathearn-gallery.com . The exhibition runs until March 12th, so plenty of time still to get along…

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.

‘Drumochter sketch’

Posted by admin on February 19th, 2011
25 'Drumochter sketch', Pastel on gesso', 30 x 30 cm
‘Drumochter sketch’, Pastel on gesso, 2011, 30 x 30 cm, £280
As regular visitors to this website will know, I did quite a lot of drawing last summer while working in Speyer.  These large pieces were done with grey oil pastel on thick white paper.  I particularly liked the grey oil pastel line against the stark white paper and since returning to Scotland I’ve started working on smaller drawings – these based on my landscape paintings.  There is one difference though …these pieces are done on board that is coated with white gesso.  The gesso I use has a slightly course texture to it and this gives the pastel marks a slightly sharper appearance.
‘Drumochter sketch is one of two such drawings currently being exhibited in my exhibition ‘On the hill – impressions of the Scottish upland landscape’, at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff.  The exhibition runs until 12th March and so if you haven’t had a chance yet to get along to see it, there’s plenty of time.  The work in the exhibition can be viewed by visiting www.strathearn-gallery.com .

Just right…

Posted by admin on February 19th, 2011
On Ben Inverveigh

On Ben Inverveigh

In the past when I had more time, I’d be happy to go out walking even if the forecast was for very low cloud and rain and general gloom. It’s interesting and quite a challenge. As my work has developed though, to take up more of my time, I’ve started to realise that the walks I go on need to be both work and play and as such I tend now to be a little more selective about the weather conditions on the days we walk.

Over the last few days it has been just the case. We’ve wanted to get out again on a fairly regular basis in order to build up our fitness again but looking ahead this week, the forecasts were pretty miserable. Bands of rain and hill snow coupled with low cloud didn’t look too promising. That said however, Wednesday seemed to offer the best chance of getting a few breaks and slightly higher cloud …although it did appear that we might get quite wet too.

We chose to walk Ben Inverveigh, the very modest little hill we’ve visited several times before. It lies close to Loch Tulla and makes for a gentle walk in an excellent location.

Frozen lochan on Ben Inverveigh

Frozen lochan on Ben Inverveigh

As it wasn’t going to be a great hike we didn’t set off too early and stopped for a quick late breakfast at the ‘Green Welly in Tyndrum. The forecast seemed about right and the cloud was very firmly settled at around 650m but with quite a number of breaks offering occasional brightness and even a brief glimpse of blue sky. The snow was a little lower than I’d expected and seemed to start at around 500m. It’s just a short drive from Tyndrum over to our starting point at the Bridge of Orchy and as we approached it we got the first view of our hill …definitely snow topped and with its upper slopes in mist ….but it was dry and so things were looking good.

The big hills of Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh were well shrouded in mist but the corrie that lies between them looked great..the steep crags on each side of it appearing out of the whiteness of snow and mist.

Our route followed the West Highland Way from Bridge of Orchy gently uphill through some forestry before emerging onto open hillside …the northeast end of Ben Inverveigh.

The WHW climbs over this shoulder before descending down to the wee road near the Inveroran Hotel. Our route though left the WHW at its highest point and followed a green track across rough ground before petering out not far below a prominent little top at just over 500m. We’d just got into the patchy snow and in the gloomy light it made everything come alive. Ben Inverveigh is just a long broad grass, heather and stone covered ridge or lump but it is superbly located with bigger hills all around and the beautiful Loch Tulla below.

Descending Ben Inverveigh

Descending Ben Inverveigh

As we went along this ridge we were surprised at the snow ..it was a good covering of 10 – 15 cm with occasional drifts and banked out hollows. There are a number of small lochans along the way and these were coated in a thin layer of ice which was then covered in snow …care was needed, especially when the cloud came down, not to inadvertently walk over …and no doubt into one of these icy little baths. The summit is at the far end of the ridge …about an hours walk, and is marked by a small cairn perched atop one of the numerous rocky outcrops. We were lucky and arrived in clear conditions and had good views around us ….it was even dry and with very light winds it made for a pleasant if short lunch spot. We retraced out steps back along the ridge and down to the WHW and then followed the track down to the Inveroran Hotel before walking the single track road back to the Bridge of Orvhy.

Loch Tulla, late afternoon

Loch Tulla, late afternoon

As we descended though, the cloud started to lift and break all around and we got wonderful views of Loch Tulla and the remnants of the Caledonian Forest all shown to their advantage in the bright late afternoon sunlight. But the best was saved till last. As we followed the road back to our starting point, Beinn an Dothaidh and Beinn Dorain became clear of mist and were illuminated by the last rays of the fast sinking sun ….quite stunning and the best view of these hills I’ve ever had.

We got back to the car just after the sun had set and after changing out of the walking gear, decided to check out the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. Perfect timing …they started serving food at six o’clock. With a warm fire, friendly service and great food it made for the perfect end to our day.

Last light, Beinn Dorain

Last light, Beinn Dorain

We had a fine day the previous Saturday at the preview to the exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery. The show, comprising paintings by myself and a wonderful selection of glassware and sculpture by Scott Irvine, looks great …even though I say it myself! I was very pleased with the way it had all gone together and Fiona, the gallery owner, had done a fantastic job at hanging and presenting all the work. We had a pretty good turn out despite forecasts for snow. So, if you haven’t had a chance t get along to see it …well, I think you’ll find it a worth while trip.

‘Overlooking Glen Coe’

Posted by admin on February 11th, 2011
26 'Overlooking Glen Coe', Acrylic & Pastel,

'Overlooking Glen Coe'

‘Overlooking Glen Coe’, Acrylic & Pastel

This painting is based on a day a while back when we were making our way along the ridge that twists its way between the top of the Devils staircase and Am Bodach. It’s a route we’ve taken a few times and it makes for superb but easy walking in the heart of Glen Coe. On this occasion the weather was fine but as we neared the high point at just over 900 m, a thick band of very low cloud drifted up the glen and started to obscure the hills. It didn’t last long and our hill stayed clear, but it made for a very atmospheric scene as we looked across the glen towards the flanks of Stob Coire Raineach.

‘Overlooking Glen Coe’ is currently on display as part of my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff. The exhibition opens on Saturday 12th February and continues until March 12th. For more details and to see all 45 paintings in the exhibition please visit: www.strathearn-gallery.com

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.

‘Below Canisp, Assynt’

Posted by admin on February 3rd, 2011
below-canisp-assynt-acrylic-pastel-2011-30-x-30-cm

'Below Canisp, Assynt'

‘Below Canisp, Assynt’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 30 x 30 cm

I started this little painting around a year ago but in the rush to get everything together for my trip to Speyer I must have put it to one side and forgot all about it.  I found it a short while ago along with some blank primed painting boards ….and decided to have a crack at finishing it.

It’s based on the wild spot immediately below Canisp in Assynt.  Set below the northern flanks of the hill (as I remember it) are a couple of beautiful wee lochs.  If you follow the route described in the books, the path avoids these lochs, climbing above them.  However it is much better in my opinion to avoid the path and make across the open and very stony ground to reach these lochs and then clamber more steeply uphill to gain the path higher up.  We sat by one of the lochs both on our way up and on our descent.  It really is a wild and remote spot …incredibly quiet and stunningly beautiful.  On the two occasions we’ve walked this hill, both times in May, we’ve seen no other walkers.  The viewpoint from the summit of Canisp is special as your eye is caught by the magnificent outline of Suilven just to the south west.  This is definitely a hill to take your time on …in May there’s no shortage of daylight and in good weather you can just wonder across this ancient and awe inspiring landscape.

A change for the better

Posted by admin on February 3rd, 2011
'Heavy weather, October, Beinn Inverveigh'

'Heavy weather, October, Beinn Inverveigh'

Ever since I first picked up a paint brush I’ve been told time and time again …‘don’t go back to a painting once it is finished’.   Everyone, it seems, knows this, but I’m not sure quite how many people who paint actually adhere to this….come on,….it’s just too tempting isn’t it!

There really can’t be that much worse than seeing one of your finished paintings …and then realising that you’d conned yourself when you put it into a frame…….you’d got caught up in the moment and simply allowed your ego to take over.  You know what its like …you’re painting away late into the evening and its all going well.  You’re happy, you’ve got your music blasting out and before you know it, you’re thinking the painting on the easel in front of you is the best thing you’ve ever done, in fact, it’s possibly a mini masterpiece!  You wash your brushes and waltz about the studio on a real high ..and leave for home planning your acceptance speech for the Turner Prize!!  Of course, when you return in the morning eager to reacquaint yourself with the previous evenings work …all is not so good.  In fact, all is far from good.  All is really dreadful.  The colours are insane, the composition simply appalling and quite just how you failed to notice the piece of kitchen towel stuck to the paint in the top left corner …well, it just beggars belief!  Where had the masterpiece that was surely to lead to fame and fortune, gone?  Had someone entered the studio and painted over the top of it while you were sleeping, or simply repaced it with this ill considered daub?

Over the years, I’ve had far too many disappointments like this. I’ve become rather wary of any initial excitement on my part over a new piece of work.  Now when I return in the morning I kind of sidle up to the studio door, let myself in and avoid eye contact with the previous evenings work.  By concentrating on everything but the work, I can usually put my sign out, turn on all the lights, fill the kettle and open the shutters …and sometimes even manage half a mug of coffee before taking a peek.  Then of course, if it’s ***** …I can be very casual and grown up about it.  It’s just a point on the way to a painting …not the finished item.  In this way, I’ve learnt to avoid much of the gloom that comes with realising that you’re not quite the painter you imagined you were the evening before!

This said, somehow, pieces still occasionally get under the radar and it is at this point that I have to go against that old advice …and take the painting back out of the frame and try and put things right.  The whole reason for this weeks ramble is that I’ve just completed a re-working of a painting I did about a year ago.  The painting I guess, was ok …but the problem was that I’d done the piece specifically for a show and as things sometimes happen, completed it rather too close to the exhibition deadline.  The painting came back from the framer and the work went up to the gallery straight after.  When I saw the piece at the preview I had a little bit of a panic …it looked fine  …just not finished!  If I’d allowed more time between finishing it and having it framed I’d probably have spotted it quite quickly …but I didn’t and there it was looking rather weak and letting down my other pieces.   The painting didn’t sell and so that may well tell a story in itself, but of course once back in the studio there was no way that I could simply leave the piece as it was. I was quite happy with the general composition …it just lacked any atmosphere.  The painting is based on a day in October the other year when a friend and I took a walk up the wee Beinn Inverveigh.  It was a foul day, with heavy driving rain and low clouds being blasted along by a gale force wind.  Despite the conditions we had a great little day and as we were descending the rain became more patchy and odd patches of brightness brought out the vivid autumn colours of the various grasses.

'Heavy weather, October, Beinn Inverveigh,

BEFORE

'Heavy weather, October, Beinn Inverveigh'

AFTER

After having the painting back in the studio for a couple of months I eventually decided to tackle the problem.  I spent perhaps the best part of two days painting into the original piece, using colours in thin glazes to try and bring out the misty atmosphere of that wet autumn afternoon.  I’m far happier with the piece now. It is almost the same composition but has for me, much more of the feel of that wild and wet October afternoon.  Of course, I’m wondering now whether I have the nerve to put up a ‘before’ and ‘after’ image of this work.  I think I will …comments please on my Face book page …I’ve found the delete button now, so if anyone thinks that the original version was better than the new one ….. need I say more?!

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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    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org