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Arkle | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘Arkle’

‘Ben Hope from Arkle, Sutherland’

'Ben Hope from Arkle, Sutherland'

‘Ben Hope from Arkle, Sutherland’

‘Ben Hope from Arkle, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 76 x 23 cm

I did this painting last year but somehow managed to forget to photograph it before I had it framed.  What is more, I didn’t realise this prior to sending the painting, (along with five others) to be exhibited at the Braidwood Restaurant near Dalry.

The painting is based on the view we had as we sat at the south summit of Arkle, looking NE towards the long ridge of Ben Hope.  I had always wanted to walk into this range of mountains and it was a wonderful experience.  We saw no one else that day and the light and colours were just beautiful.

Unfortunately this is a very poor photo of the painting …it is enlarged from a more general studio snap.  However, it gives a reasonable idea and so long as the painting doesn’t sell ….I’ll have a chance of getting a proper record of it when it returns to the studio at the end of the year.  If it does sell,.well, I’ll just have to put it down to experience!

‘Quartzite screes, Arkle, Sutherland’

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‘Quartzite screes, Arkle, Sutherland’

‘Quartzite screes, Arkle, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2012, 30 x 30 cm

About a month ago I received an email from a gentleman in London asking if I had any paintings of Ben Arkle in Sutherland.  Of course, at the time I didn’t have anything suitable and as it was to be given as a present I suggested he try a colleague who I knew had painted this hill a few years ago.  It certainly made me think though, as Nita and I had walked to the southern top of this fine hill on our last holiday in Assynt ….May 2011.  The hills in this part of NW Scotland are wild and rugged and most of their upper slopes are covered in very light coloured quartzite screes.  On the day we were on Arkle we had a mixture of bright sun and occasional heavy dark showers.  In the sunny spells the quartzite blocks covering the slopes shone brightly.  At the time, although conditions were pretty good for walking, there was a very strong wind blasting across the tops and it certainly wasn’t good for sitting and doing any sketching!  Indeed, there was virtually no shelter on the open tops …we had to crouch down behind the small cairn and put on extra hats and coats.  Anyway, I did take a lot of photos while on the walk and I had planned to try and do some paintings from them …but never got around to it.  So then, this email got me thinking and last weekend I started a small 30 x 30 cm painting based on one of the images I took on Arkle.  This view is one looking across to the main summit ridge of Arkle from the broad stone covered slopes of its southern top.

Booked

Well it’s just me and this machine today ….no painting I’m afraid, just writing.  I have though been down into town this morning to go to the bank to pay the deposit on the cottage we’ve just booked for our holiday in May.  Last week you’ll remember, I was wondering where to go and more to the point whether we’d be able to find anywhere still available for the two weeks in May.  Most of the places we looked at in Sutherland were booked for the weeks we wanted, but we did find one place just a little further to the east than we’d originally planned.   I think it is described as a former croft and is situated very close to the north coast.  It sounds great and well located for getting to some of the northern hills as well as exploring this magnificent bit of coastline.  Now we’ve booked I’m getting really excited and will have to order the OS 1:25000 maps for the area.  The magnifiers will be put to good use once the maps arrive.

I’ve been looking in the hill guides and one hill that does attract me …although it’ll be a little bit of a drive, is Morven.  It is 706 m and is apparently the highest point in Caithness.  Until last year I’d never heard of it but on the day we walked to the southern summit of Arkle and were sat looking out over the vast wild landscape of Sutherland and Caithness, Nita spotted this very distinctive hill a way over to the east.  Our maps didn’t cover the area and so it was only on returning to the caravan that evening that we were able to look in the hill guide …and Nita spotted it.  It really is quite a distinctive shape and I think the book said that it is of Old Red Sandstone.  There is a neighbouring hill of slightly less height and both look well worth a visit.  Situated not too far inland from the NE coast and in an area that is generally quite low, they should offer magnificent views on a clear day.

A couple of years ago I sold one of my larger paintings (of Coire an t’ Sneachda in the Cairngorms) to a gentleman living near Wick in Caithness.  He phoned me the morning that the painting arrived and after talking about the painting and where he was going to hang it, he asked me whether I’d ever visited the Flow Country.  When I told him that I hadn’t, he said he’d thoroughly recommend it….he thought its big horizons and skies would make wonderful paintings.  It’s an area I’ve often thought of visiting but as there aren’t so many hills I’ve always tended to head further west.  So then, finally we’re going to be close to this fabulous wild area.  I think I read that it is the biggest unbroken area of bog in Europe.  Sounds great.

No photos to go with the blog this week I’m afraid but I’ll hopefully have some new images for next week’s effort.

Where to go?

'North from the summit of Ben Hee'

'North from the summit of Ben Hee'

We still haven’t booked anywhere for our two week long holiday in May.  We’ve been more organised over the previous few years and had everything arranged by this time.  Of course, this has been quite easy as we’ve been going to the same place ….Achmelvich in Assynt.  It is very tempting to once again book one of the caravans at the little ‘Hillhead’ site there.  It is stunningly beautiful, very quiet and surrounded by amazing hills and mountains.

We have though, now walked many of these hills, Suilven, Canisp, Conival, Breabag, Sail Gharbh, Spidean Coinich, Glas Bheinn, Speicin Coinnich, Cul Mor and Cul Beag…..and have started to look further north.  We’ve done forays into Sutherland from our base in Achmelvich ….visiting Ben Hope, Ben Kilbreck, Ben Stack, Arkle and Ben Hee, but it’s a bit of a drive each time and so we’re thinking that this year we may try and find some accommodation somewhere in this most northerly part of the mainland.  I never mind revisiting hills but at the same time I get a great buzz out of walking somewhere I’ve never been before.

'Ben Hope from Arkle'

'Ben Hope from Arkle'

That said of course, we’re leaving it a bit late ….most self catering accommodation is booked quite early and so we may find it difficult to find anything in our price range that is still available for the two weeks in May.  I’m going to start searching the web and will contact the Scottish Tourist Board to get one of their brochures and then it’ll be a case of ringing around …no doubt to be told ‘fully booked, you should have booked back last autumn’!  We’ve been there before …or not ….and have ended up taking a holiday in a completely different part of Scotland!  But the thing about life is ….you have to be flexible, especially when you’re disorganised like Nita and I.  Hopefully though, we’ll see the kind of views we got last year from Ben Hee and Arkle.  But that’s the thing about Scotland…it really doesn’t matter where you go …it’s nearly all beautiful.  Any suggestions?!

'From Ben Hee, a little bit of weather!'

'From Ben Hee, a little bit of weather!'

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‘NE from Arkle, Sutherland’

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‘NE from Arkle, Sutherland’

 ‘NE from Arkle, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 76 x 23 cm

This is one of the paintings that will be showing at Gallery Q in Dundee(22nd October –11 November 2011).  It’s based on the day back in May when we walked part way up Arkle …in the far northwest of Scotland.  The hill is a mass of quartzite screes and blocks and made particularly hard walking for me ….the light was bouncing off of the white /grey stones and it was difficult for me to see where I was putting my feet!  But it was worth the effort getting to the first (false) summit.  The views were huge and as we sat with our backs against the strong cold wind, we could see right over to Ben Hope …the most northerly of the Munros.  We saw no one else that day …total peace and quiet …wonderful.

For details of the exhibition at Gallery Q, Dundee, visit:  www.galleryq.co.uk

Filling in the gap

Arkle, approaching weather

Arkle, approaching weather

Well, firstly I guess I’d better apologise for the lack of a blog last week.  I had planned to write one but in the end never quite got around to it!   But I do have a slight excuse ….. we’ve been away on holiday to Assynt for the last couple of weeks and I decided that a short break would do me good.  I am as I write, sitting in the caravan we’ve rented at Achmelvich just a few miles to the north of Lochinver in the north west of Scotland.  This is the final day of the holiday and we’re heading back to Irvine and work tomorrow.

Anyway, we’ve had a great time and have done particularly well with the weather.  Indeed we’ve had many days of hot sunny weather, especially the first week and even this week has been pretty good too, although it’s gone decidedly cool today.

This is the forth time since 2006 that we’ve stayed here and yet this amazing region of Scotland never ceases to impress.  In early May there are a few visitors but places are generally quiet and so everywhere is very peaceful.  Two weeks up here gives me the chance to relax and  re-charge my batteries while at the same time get some serious walking done and gather information for my new paintings.  And that just about sums up what we’ve been doing this last 13 days …well with some nice meals and some excellent local beer thrown in for good measure of course!

Arkle, Sutherland

Arkle, Sutherland

Taking advantage of the particularly fine weather in our first week here, we climbed two of the local hills – Sail Garbh ….one of the summits of Quinag and Braebag, a long high quartz covered whaleback of a hill that lies close to its rather larger neighbours, Conival and Ben More Assynt.  We’d climbed Sail Garbh about four years ago but it was great to get back there again …the views being especially fine from its rocky summit.  As we weren’t planning to go on and climb either of the other two tops of  Quinag we were able to take our time and we spent a good hour at the summit just enjoying the silence.  We’d never visited Braebag before and this turned out to be a wonderful walk.  It is, as I said, just a big long broad stony ridge, but when you get up there you find these great piles of quartzite blocks and rubble laid out in long ridges with large areas of moss and grass separating them.  It was really quite a strange and beautiful landscape especially with the bright sunshine reflecting off of the quartzite.  To be honest, we weren’t really expecting to see anyone on this hill but not long after we’d sat down to eat our sandwiches by a wee cairn marking one of the stony tops, another couple appeared on an adjacent pile of boulders.  At this point we started to wonder if ‘our’ top was actually the summit ….their top now looked a wee bit higher.  There was nothing for it, after lunch we’d just have to wander over and see …and it was a metre or so higher …and marked with a slightly bigger cairn.

Assynt 2011, from Braebag

Assynt 2011, from Braebag

During this our second week, we decided to head north and try and climb a couple of these wild hills.  We headed for Arkle on Monday and had another wonderful day.  It is quite a striking hill, once again covered in quartzite but with much steeper sides and a wonderful curving ridge leading up to its summit.  This, according to the guide book is rather narrow in one section and so a definite ‘no’ for me unfortunately.  That said we could still climb up to the 750m top at the SE end of the ridge and from there had quite stunning views both of Arkle and it’s higher neighbour Foinaven….oh to have a bit more sight and to be able to wander these wild and dramatic ridges.  I can’t complain though, to sit there on this lonely wind swept top was very special indeed.

Our final hill of the holiday was Ben Hee and we were once again treated to fine weather.  This hill, rising to 873m lies a few miles to the east of Arkle the terrain is much softer.  Most of the lower slopes are a mixture of grass, moss  and heather and it was hard work getting up to the top of Meallan Liath Mor, a 680m top on route to the main summit.  Higher up there were areas of broken rocks and boulders that made for difficult walking but most of these could be avoided.  Again we had the hill to ourselves for the whole day and were able to sit at the top taking in the huge views out over Sutherland and Caithness.  Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro, stood out well not too far to the north east of us and with my monocular I could make out most of these northern hills.

Assynt 2011, from Sail Garbh, Quinag

Assynt 2011, from Sail Garbh, Quinag

You’ll be glad to hear that I have done some drawing while I’ve been away and have ideas for new paintings and drawings.  It’s been good to get away and to visit new bits of Scotland and to get away from the studio for a short while but I’m starting to look forward to getting back to the painting now.  So then, I’d better go and start putting things back into bags ready for the drive back to Irvine tomorrow.  Hopefully this will be posted by Sunday or Monday and everything will get back to normal!

Ben Stack from Arkle

Ben Stack from Arkle

East from the summit of Ben Hee

East from the summit of Ben Hee

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