counter hit xanga
Latest Blogs | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings - Part 49

Bugged, snowed on, frozen and no work worked for six days!….Slacking or what?

Posted by admin on December 12th, 2010
'In Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

'In Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

A late blog again I’m afraid.  Suddenly it’s Sunday evening and I’ve just realised I haven’t written anything.  It’s been one of those weeks and one best forgotten.  Not only did I not get the blog written, I also got no painting done either.

The week started out well last Sunday with a very enjoyable few hours at the Courtyard Studios Christmas Fair.  It was the first time we’d held such an event and so I think we were all a little uncertain as to quite how many people might come along.  The fair took place at the Harbour Arts Centre which is just two doors down the street from the studios.  It’s an excellent venue and has a great bar / restaurant too.  We are though out along the harbour side and as such, a 15 minute walk from the main shopping area in Irvine.  At this time of year not too many people leave their town based Christmas shopping to venture in our direction.  That said though, Gordon (our new studio rep) did a grand job at promoting the event and had managed to get the local paper to write a piece about the fair….and it worked.  We had a very good turn out and although none of us I guess will be able to retire on the proceeds, we all I think sold a few items and most importantly, we helped let people know where we are.

'Trees in Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

'Trees in Eglinton Country Park, Monday afternoon'

From that point though, the week took a decided downward trend.  By Sunday evening I was feeling decidedly rough and as things hadn’t improved the next morning I decided to stay at home and catch up with some work on the computer.  Then it started snowing …and sticking, which is quite an event for Irvine.  Being on the coast we quite often miss the snow …but not this time.  We didn’t have the falls that so badly affected most of the central belt but it was nice and by the afternoon despite feeling ill, I just had to go out for a wee walk in it.  From the house you can follow an old disused railway line up to the edge of Eglinton Country Park and from their follow any number of paths through the rough mixture of grass and woodland.  It makes a very pleasant wander and with the snow down it looked great even under the dark grey skies.

By Tuesday I felt even worse and took to my bed and slept.  Wednesday was just as bad and Thursday too, but on Friday I suddenly started to feel a good deal better and so finally made it back to the studio on Saturday.  Today I’m still sniffing and coughing but just about back to rights but with six days missed I now have to try and catch up with my work.  I don’t normally work to a deadline but with the show coming up in Strathearn Gallery in early February I have quite a tight schedule.  I also sold one painting the previous weekend and have heard that I may have sold another one at one of the galleries …so a bit more work to be done….it’s all go.

Snap!

Posted by admin on December 2nd, 2010
West from Cul Mor, Assynt

West from Cul Mor, Assynt

I’ve loved taking photographs ever since buying my first camera, (a little Ilford instamatic) through a special offer on the back of a cereal box, back in 1969.  It wasn’t the finest of cameras but at the age of ten it seemed pretty good to me.  I bought it just before we went on holiday to Eire and I came back with 12 (albeit rather fuzzy) photos of the Dingle peninsular.  What is more, they were the only photographs of the holiday  ….my father had failed to load his 35 mm film properly and came back to find an unexposed roll of film in his camera!

That little camera certainly got me into snapping photos whenever we went anywhere and before long I moved up market a little and got myself a very solid Zenith SLR. This camera was certainly not a sexy beast, (I think it was made out of plate steel) and I  lugged it around along with a great little Weston light meter, for many years.   By the time I was at Falmouth School of Art in the early 1980’s it was a bit of a joke to many of my friends who had spent much of their grants on new hi tech cameras.  In the Easter break in 1981 a small group of us spent three weeks up on North Uist enjoying the wild beaches, the loch strewn land and the isolated hills of Beinn Mhor and Hecla.  One of the group forgot to take a spare battery for his camera …and it ran out on the first week  …no place to buy a replacement of course.  Another friend, Paul, dropped his camera and being made out of plastic, the top cracked.  And so it was yours truly  (feeling rather smug) with my battered old iron clad manual Zenith who came away with the photos.

From Am Bodach, the Mamores

From Am Bodach, the Mamores

The Zenith, (now almost 35 years old,) still works although I put it into retirement at least ten years ago) and I’ve now moved into the digital age!!  As my sight deteriorated I found I was taking more and more bad photographs.  Using film and finding that 22 out of the roll of 24 were either tilting the sea out, had a thumb in the corner, or were simply just dreadful …well, it was getting expensive….hence my getting a digital camera. Now I can tilt the skyline as much as I want, take hundreds of dreadful pictures and get all five digits in front of the lens …and it doesn’t cost me anything …and if you snap enough you tend to get a couple of reasonable pictures most days.

On the edge of Rannoch Moor

On the edge of Rannoch Moor

Anyway, the reason for rambling on about photographs and cameras is that we’re holding a small Christmas Affordable Art Fair at the Harbour Arts  Centre in Irvine on Sunday 5th December and Sunday 19th December.  Around about a dozen of the artists and makers at the Courtyard Studios will be taking part with a wide range of paintings, drawings, prints, jewellery and cards on sale.  I’ve decided to show a dozen photographs taken on the Scottish hills during the last 10 or so years.  Most of them are my own but I’ve also included a couple that my partner Anita took….with her permission of course!  It’ll be interesting to see what reaction I get with them.

The Cobbler

The Cobbler

So, the event runs from 12 noon until 4 pm on 5th & 19th December.  The Courtyard Studios are only two doors away from the Harbour Arts Centre on Harbour Street in Irvine.  I’ll have my studio open as well so if you want to see some paintings too, then just drop by.  There should be other studios open at the Courtyard too.  I look forward to meeting anyone who can get along.

“From Ben Lui”

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

'From Ben Lui'

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

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

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

A day on Beinn Chuirn …..but not on good form

Posted by admin on November 27th, 2010
View from the coire Ben Chuirn

View from the coire Ben Chuirn

It’s amazing, I’ve been walking in the hills since the age of ten ….introduced to the mountains by my father shortly after we moved to Wales from Essex in 1969.   I loved these wild places so much that when my sight went bad back in the early 90’s I was still determined to continue these walks despite the practical difficulties.  I’m certainly not an outdoor expert, (I still have much to learn) but I am I guess fairly experienced when it comes to walking in the hills. This said however, every once in a while I have a day when I really struggle, where quite simply I lose my nerve somewhat.  Yesterday was just such an occasion.

What should have been another fantastic day, turned into a difficult and quite stressful one for me.  The forecast for the Loch Lomond National Park area had improved rapidly over the previous 24 hours and although there was much snow falling over in the east of the country, on the west coast it was dry, bright and cold.  We planned to drive up to Tyndrum and walk into Cononish glen as far as the farm of Cononish.  Here the track splits, one continuing up the glen to end below Ben Lui, the other heading up hill to the entrance of the small gold mine at the base of Beinn Chuirn…..the hill we were hoping to walk.

Beinn Chuirn

Beinn Chuirn

There was a dusting of snow on the ground at Tyndrum but most of the hills around had little or no snow on them.  As the path entered the Cononish glen though, we got our first view of Ben Lui …and it was well covered with snow.  It looked superb and all of its 1100m.  Its neighbour, Beinn Chuirn (880m) was though, virtually clear of the white stuff.  It all looked rather strange.  Beinn Chuirn has an impressive coire below its summit and we hoped we would be able to walk up into this and then out onto its rim and around that to the summit cairn.  This looked fairly steep but as we approached the hill above Cononish, Anita and our friend Guy both said it looked OK.

At this point though we left the track and headed across the rough ground aiming for the coire …and things became pretty difficult.  Although there was no snow, the ground was completely frozen in most places, there were numerous areas of solid ice hidden in the grass and heather, some areas were frosted, some in bright sun, some in deep shadow and of course there were numerous rocks.

From the coire, Ben Chuirn

From the coire, Ben Chuirn

Now then, I’ve walked on ground like this plenty of times before and although it’s difficult I’ve not had a problem.  Yesterday however, for whatever reason, I just found it very challenging. I moved exceedingly slowly despite putting on the spiders to help give me extra grip on the icy ground.  Nita and Guy were as always, very patient and guided me excellently, but with the prospect of the ground getting much steeper I really wasn’t looking forward to the ascent.  At this time of year the days are almost at their shortest and I knew I had to get back to the big track in the glen before it got dark.  I looked at the slow pace I was going and realised there was no way that I would be able to get up to the top and back down in time.

We decided instead to carry on into the coire but simply try to get to a point where we could see our route to the top ….then at least we’d know for a future trip.  Well then, we did manage this and the coire was dramatic and the views back out, very impressive …but I was really struggling on this patchwork of surfaces.  After a lunch break we retreated back down into the glen and arrived back at the car as it was getting dusk.  Nita and Guy had enjoyed their day…..I on the other hand, felt rather glum.  I honestly don’t know why I found it so difficult yesterday.  Perhaps though it’s that on this occasion I thought just a little bit too much about what I was doing.

Dusk, Ben Lui from Cononish

Dusk, Ben Lui from Cononish

Walking hills and mountains when you have such a limited amount of sight, really is quite difficult.  It takes a huge amount of concentration, great guides (which I’m lucky to have in Nita and Guy), and at times a little bit of bottle.  Either that or you just need to be completely mad!  I think most of the times I’m out in these wonderful wild places; it’s a little bit of all of these.   Sometimes though, like yesterday, reality cuts in and I find it quite scary!   Next time though I’ll get it right again… with a bit of luck.

Photos by Anita Groves

“Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoon”

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

'Ben Ledi from Benvane, April afternoo

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday on Ben Ledi

Posted by admin on November 19th, 2010
Early morning mists, Ben Ledi

Early morning mists, Ben Ledi

Well we’re at long last starting to get back out on the hills a little more regularly and last Sunday we took advantage of another fine day to head for the popular hill Ben Ledi.   It is situated just to the north west of Callander and stands right on the edge of the highlands …giving amazing views from it’s summit, to the bigger hills to the east, west and north, as well as out over the flatter countryside of the central belt to the south.   It’s also a relatively short distance from Glasgow and so, like Ben Lomond, it is a very popular place to walk.

As such we decided to try and get a fairly early start and arrived at the base of the hill about a quarter to nine.  It had been a beautiful drive up passing along the southern edge of the Highlands through Balloch, Drymen and Aberfoyle to Callander.  Anita spotted snow on Ben Lomond as we passed Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond and then said she could see another hill with a good covering of snow on, further to the east …where we were heading.  There certainly looked to be a little more snow than we’d been expecting but as the cloud levels were quite high and the sun was starting to break through, it looked like it was going to be a good day.

There was already a couple of cars parked at the start point and by the time we’d got the boots on and gear ready another couple had arrived along with two mini buses!   The path is a large well made one, a lot of work having to be done to combat the erosion caused by so many boots.  It climbs steeply up through dense mature conifers before breaking out onto the open hillside.  You get fine views right from this point and as we looked back across the glen a thick band of very low cloud drifted below us.  The path follows and then crosses a small stream heading for the broad shoulder of the hill and it was at this level that we reached the first snow.  It’s also on gaining this point that you can see west to the many lochs and hills of the Trossachs.

The summit of Ben Ledi

The summit of Ben Ledi

The path follows the broad grassy ridge gradually up before reaching a final steep section with a good drop developing on its eastern side.  The snow by this stage was a mixture of older and quite icy stuff with a coating of a few centimetres of fresh snow on top …it was lovely.  We decided to stop, have a sandwich, admire the view and put on the spiders …it looked like it might be a bit slippery on the steeper section so seeing as we had them we might as well use them.   As we sat here the occupants of the mini buses (a party of young people with their teachers) all arrived, had instructions about moving carefully in the snow, and then all moved off again.  We gave them a few minutes head start and followed.  It really was beautiful with the sun picking out many of the bigger hills around.  Stuc a’ Chroin to the east of us looked particularly dramatic against quite dark skies behind it and as we reached the summit the big hills around Ben Lawers and Glen Lyon showed up well.

It was the ridge leading away from the summit that really caught the eye though, covered in snow and lit by the sun, it looked stunning as it curved away.  We watched the school party head off along it and a chap from another small party came over and kindly pointed out that you could see all the way to the mountains on the Isle of Arran ….well, he and Anita could …but it was nice to know and I could certainly imagine what they were seeing.  We set off along the broad ridge enjoying the wonderful surroundings before it descended steeply and we were below the snow line.  The route back descends down quite steep slopes before meeting a large track that contours back around under the hill, before entering the forest once again.  We were back to the car by just after three in the afternoon and it had made a great little day.

North from the summit of Ben Ledi

North from the summit of Ben Ledi

Mind you, can’t always get it right.  We’d planned to head out again today but after seeing a forecast that said thick low cloud, we decided to give it a miss ….I have a lot of work on at the moment.  Of course, we got up this morning and there’s blue sky and it all looks great……. ****!

A quick trip to Crieff

Posted by admin on November 13th, 2010

'Above the Rest and Be Thankful'

'Above the Rest and Be Thankful'

A couple of weeks ago The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff took six of my paintings with them down to the Battersea Park Affordable Art Fair. They sold two of the paintings and so on Thursday we drove up to Perthshire to collect the unsold pieces and deliver two small pieces (shown here) for their forthcoming Christmas exhibition.

I’m sure I needn’t remind you but the weather that day was pretty vile. The thought of lugging several big paintings from the gallery to the car park a hundred or so metres away, in heavy rain and gale force winds was not a good one, but as Anita was working Friday and Saturday and the gallery was closed on the Sunday, we didn’t have much choice.

'On Quinag, May'

'On Quinag, May'

It didn’t look to promising as we set out from Irvine in the morning. There were dark threatening clouds to the east and we thought the worst. ….but as we approached Glasgow the sun came out (who said it was rainy in the west?!) and we seemed to follow the bright blue patches in the sky all the way to Crieff. It made for a lovely journey, especially once past Stirling and into the Perthshire countryside. The trees looked great in the bright sun and the colours were really intense. As we approached Crieff though there was really dark heavy cloud sitting on the hills behind the town ….where we’d been walking only a few weeks before ….and it didn’t seem likely that the sun would last that much longer.

It remained long enough though, to get the paintings down the street and into the car without getting a soaking and we were soon heading off back in the direction of the A9 and Glasgow. I had broached the subject of driving back via Crianlarich …the scenic route, but Nita said it was going to rain and we wouldn’t see anything …and she got it right. We’d not got more than a couple of kilometres out of Crieff when the rain started …and it quickly turned into a deluge. It was horrible ….really wet and very dark …I couldn’t see a thing ….good job they don’t let me drive ey?! Well, it remained like this all the way back to Glasgow but by the time we were getting into Ayrshire there was a bit of sun appearing again and we were able to unload the paintings from the car into my studio in the dry ….quite amazing.

Anyway, The Strathearn Gallery Christmas Exhibition opens on Saturday 20th November 2010 with a private view from 11am – 3 pm.

Exhibition opening hours Monday – Saturday 10 am – 5pm, Sunday 1pm – 5pm

January 2011 opening hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12 noon – 5pm

There are works by many artists in the exhibition so it should make for a great show.

“From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret”

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

"From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret"

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

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

A Perfect day for spiders

Posted by admin on November 8th, 2010
Above Loch Long

Above Loch Long

Firstly, my apologies for the late arrival of this blog ….last weeks blog in fact.   Suffice to say it’s been another busy week and a visit to Blairmore Gallery on Thursday, a visit from Susie of The Gallery on the Corner, on Friday and working late most evenings meant that doing the blog went clean out of my mind! Oh well better late than never.

I don’t know what it was like else where but here in Irvine it was a pretty miserable week weather wise.  We had a lot of gloomy wet days and so we put off thoughts of another visit into the hills.  However, the forecast for the weekend was much better and so we decided to get out on Sunday.

The Cobbler

The Cobbler

For the last eighteen months, when we’d got out walking we’d been heading for some of the smaller hills and I realised that I hadn’t actually climbed a Munro for quite a long time.  I had a sudden hankering for reaching that magic 914 metres but with the clocks having just changed and it now being November it means short days ….not good when you can’t see too much and are very slow.  We decided therefore to head for Ben Ime, in the Arrochar Alps.  For me, it has the advantage of being reached by good well made paths (so quite fast even with a fuzzy eye) and the final ascent is nearly all on easy grass slopes with just one short steep more rocky section near the top.  Ideally though we’d need to make an early start in order to give me the maximum amount of daylight to do the walk and so we planned to set out from Irvine by 06.30 …this meaning we’d be walking by just before eight o’clock.  As it turned out though, we started an hour later.   Saturday had been very wet but by the evening everything was starting to freeze and we thought that the roads first thing the next morning might be a bit icy …hence leaving the hour later to give things a chance to warm up a little.

View from the lower slopes of Ben Ime

View from the lower slopes of Ben Ime

We reached the car park on shores of Loch Long and were walking by 08.50 and everything looked great.  We had almost clear skies, there was frost on the grass and there was mist drifting over the loch.   The route climbs quite steeply up through a young conifer plantation but still giving plenty of views out over the loch and the village of Arrochar  to Ben Lomond beyond ….and as we climbed we quickly gained enough height to get into the sun …it was lovely.   At last you are high enough to see into the glen leading to The Cobbler …and it’s quite a sight with its very distinctive and dramatic outline.  On your right the hillside climbs steeply to Beinn Narnain and higher up the slopes were quite white, although we weren’t sure if this was thick frost or a thin coating of snow ….or a bit of both as it turned out!  We followed the path up to the col between the north peak of The Cobbler and Beinn Narnain and from this point you get to see Ben Ime, at just over 1000 m, the dominant hill in this area.  The forecast had said that a weather front would come in from the west bringing increasingly strong winds and snow on the hills by the evening and even now the blue skies of the early morning had gone and cloud was moving in …it was very cold too with the ground increasingly frozen.

Near the summit of Ben Ime, a break in the cloud

Near the summit of Ben Ime, a break in the cloud

The good path ends here and the walk across to Ben Ime is normally on boggy muddy ground …but it wasn’t too bad being frozen and we were soon puffing up the what seemed endless grass slopes …and into the cloud …the weather really was deteriorating quite fast and it even started to snow  lightly for a few minutes.  We reached the top and everything was misty and white and with the wind blowing it wasn’t a place to sit and eat a sandwich but it was time to sit and put on the spiders!  For anyone who hasn’t come across these wonderful little instep crampons …(for some reason known as spiders) well, they are a pair of small plastic plates in which are mounted eight pointed metal studs.  The whole thing fits under the instep of your boot and is held there firmly by a strap.  Now, they’re not meant to do the job of real crampons but in conditions like this, frozen ground with patches of water ice and a very thin layer of frost and snow ….they’re perfect.  They give so much extra grip and allow you to walk with more confidence and safety.  This really was a perfect day for spiders and we descended relatively quickly.  As it happened, we had some great if rather brief views near the summit …the cloud suddenly broke and it made all the effort of getting up there worthwhile …Wow.

My frosted guide!

My frosted guide!

With the weather now definitely on the decline and a thick overcast layer of cloud above, the light was getting gloomy very early and so I had to move as fast as possible to get off the hill before all the light faded.  This is where the hours of practice over the last ten years have paid off.  When I need to move fast Nita walks just in front of me telling me all the obstacles, steps and gaps ….in this way even in the descending gloom we moved safely and quite fast.  It started snowing lightly when we reached the top of the long final descent to the road and we were back down to the car by just after a quarter past four and with just a little bit of light to spare.  What a day. Time to eat the sandwiches and drink the coffee we’d carried all the way up and down but had not had time to enjoy on the hill.  We like to use the day to it’s full!

“In the Mamores, Spring”

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

'In the Mamores, Sping'

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

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

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

    Contact Details

  • Tel: 07568 380552 or 01294 216427
    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org