counter hit xanga
Beinn Each | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘Beinn Each’

An interesting week

Posted by admin on July 19th, 2014
'Towards the Isle of Arran, winter'

Sold: ‘Towards the Isle of Arran, winter’

It can’t be a bad week when the first thing to report is that one of my paintings at the 2014 North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition, sold on the preview evening last Friday.  It’s always so encouraging when someone buys one of your paintings, so a very big thank you to the lady and gentleman and I do hope that you enjoy having the piece.   The exhibition looks very good and if you haven’t already done so, I’d recommend a visit to the Racquet Hall in Eglinton Country Park, Kilwinning to see it.  It’s open daily from 10 am – 4 pm until Saturday 26th July 2014.

On Wednesday we held our first studio meeting to discuss the forthcoming Open Studios Weekend.  The event will take place on the first weekend in October and as usual there should be a very good selection of work to see.  We’re waiting to hear about WASPS plans for the event this year before I can confirm all the details and we have another meeting on 31st July when Michelle from WASPS head office in Glasgow is visiting the Courtyard to tell us all about their plans.  Watch this space!

'Below Clach Lethaidh, winter'

‘Below Clach Lethaidh, winter’

Work wise, I’ve had a good week this week, getting quite a lot done.  It’s quite important as I have to make the final selection of work for the autumn exhibition at the Biscuit Factory in Tyne and Wear.  I’ve been asked to provide 10 pieces of work of differing sizes and prices.  I always find this part very difficult and seem to change my mind about which pieces to include on a regular basis!  I am getting there though and three paintings have already been put aside for the show.  As well as the paintings I would like to include one of my new large graphite drawings.  This should work well with the other pieces and make quite a focal point for the work.  Oh well, I have a couple more weeks yet before having to make the final decision ….plenty of time to change my mind again! The exhibition opens in September so full details a little nearer the time.

Talking of a little nearer the time, I have three paintings going into a local exhibition at Tour House, Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock.  The group exhibition will include work by 6 artists and the preview is on Sunday evening.  I’m really looking forward to the event especially so as Kilmaurs was the place we lived when we first moved to Ayrshire back in October 1998.

From the summit of Stuc a' Chroin

From the summit of Stuc a’ Chroin

Of course, of course, we couldn’t go a whole week without heading out for the hills again, especially so as Nita has been on annual leave for the last two weeks.  After our over heated walk up Beinn Each last week and our failure to get across from it to the Munro, Stuc a’ Chroin, we had another go at reaching its summit on Tuesday.  The weather was once again fine but less hot thankfully and we approached the hill from a different direction this time.  We started from Glen Artney at 08.20 and after a very long walk, reached the top at 13.35.  It was a magnificent walk and gave us great views back over to Beinn Each ….although I couldn’t thankfully see or hear the bug that took a dislike to us last week!   Stuc a’ Chroin really is a magnificent hill and we were lucky to have clear conditions and patchy bright sun as we sat at the top.  This was our 3rd attempt to climb it, so I have to admit I felt quite a sense of achievement.  We saw some magnificent colours during the walk and so I think I may well try and get something in the way of a painting out of this trip.

Well then, that’s about that for this week.  I’ll be down my studio tomorrow and Sunday as Nita has pulled the short straw and is working night shifts.  She’ll be exhausted for a couple of days so no thoughts of more walking until she’s recovered.

Oh yes, one final thing.  We have a new branch of Wetherspoon’s in Irvine.  It opened a couple of days ago and I’m really pleased to say that they have two of my pictures on the wall…… I haven’t had a chance to go in and see them yet, but once Nita has finished her night shifts I think we may well call in ……just to see the paintings I hasten to add …..nothing to do with the beer ……honest!

Posted in Exhibitions, Information Updates Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Hot, hot, hot…..too hot

Posted by admin on July 10th, 2014
On Beinn Each

On Beinn Each

After what had been quite a busy week already, Nita and I decided to make the best of the fine weather and go for another walk.   For quite a few years now I’ve wanted to climb Stuc a’Chroin, the neighbour of Ben Vorlich in the Southern Highlands.  I decided that I would like to climb it via the smaller top of Beinn Each to the south and then along the broad, knobbly connecting ridge.  It would make quite a long day as the only way back would be to retrace your steps back over Beinn Each.

At the summit of Beinn Each

At the summit of Beinn Each

Well then, yesterday was going to be the day.  We started quite early and drove up to the hill under almost cloudless skies ….it looked perfect.  Perhaps though, in retrospect, it was a little too perfect for a long day!  I’d forgotten just how steep a pull up it was to reach the summit of Beinn Each.  Hardly surprising really seeing as we’d last walked this hill perhaps eight or nine years ago and if I remember rightly, it was a grey and misty damp day with little or no views higher up.

Stuc a' Chroin from Beinn Each

Stuc a’ Chroin from Beinn Each

The path itself isn’t a bad one when you can see, but for me it was quite difficult and about half way up where it scouted around the edge, above some good size crags; we went off paste and made our way straight up.  The going was much easier underfoot as we were on a mix of grass and heather but it was very steep in places.  The views were spectacular though in the bright hot sunshine it really was quite sapping on the energy.  As we approached the top and saw the view towards our main hill, Stuc a’ Chroin, our spirits flagged…..it looked a long two and a half kilometres in this heat.

Towards Ben Ledi

Towards Ben Ledi

Having spent the last 20 years learning how to adapt how I do things, I decided that it was perhaps time to adapt our route…..we’d call it a halt here at the top of Beinn Each and instead of having a tiring, hot and sweaty haul to Stuc a’ Chroin and back, we’d make camp here and sit and enjoy the views of it for an hour or so!   I have to say, that Nita was in full agreement and would possibly have mutinied if I’d even suggested trying to carry on!    We sat down, dug out the lunch packs and simply enjoyed the views ….although Nita later suggested I had done so for a short while ……while snoring!

And that is really about that, except for a rather disturbing incident on the way down.  We’d stopped to take some photos of Stuc a’ Chroin when we suddenly had a large insect buzzing around us.  It definitely wasn’t just a large bumble bee as it had a much deeper louder bussing sound.  And it was very persistent.  Nita said that it was large and torpedo shaped…..and it seemed pretty aggressive.  We tried to move away as quickly as possible but this wasn’t too easy for me on what was quite steep ground, especially as I was also flailing my walking poles around trying to fend the bug off!!!   For anyone who was watching it must have looked like that scene out of Mr Bean when he was bothered by a wasp!   The thing came back repeatedly for about five or six minutes I guess before finally losing interest.  Phew!

Posted in Inspiring Mountain Walks, Mountain Photos, Visual Disability Tags: , , , No Comments »

Back out again …at last!

Posted by admin on June 24th, 2011
Luss hills

Luss hills, June 2011

It’s been a few weeks since we were out on the hills and I been getting withdrawal symptoms! It’s certainly been a very busy few weeks what with one thing and another and there’s been a lot of bad weather in these parts too.

Anyway, yesterday finally arrived along with its promised better weather and as Nita wasn’t working and I didn’t need to be down the studio, we grabbed it with both hands. In the past when we’d visited the Luss Hills we’d always just gone and walked the fine little circuit of Beinn Dubh and Mid Hill. There are of course a good number of other hills in this area although they tend to be slightly longer days.

 

Luss hills

Luss hills, June 2011

Yesterday then, we decided to do a walk over Beinn Each and Beinn Lochain to Doune Hill ….and then instead of descending into the glen for a long and no doubt rather damp and midge infested walk back …we simply returned the same way.

It’s about an hour long walk to the base of the first hill but this is along a very pleasant single track road up Glen Luss. The grassy hills rise steeply on both sides but the base of the glen has many trees …lots of them oak I think and it makes for an enjoyable walk in and out. As you get towards the end of the public road you get good views of Beinn Each and the route beyond …and you start to think it’s going to be quite a long day!

 

Luss hills June 2011

Luss hills, June 2011

Thankfully the forecast was correct and the sky was a patchwork of bright blue areas of sky between dark and at times threatening clouds. This created a fantastic constantly changing pattern of light, shade and colour that looked absolutely beautiful. Just beyond the end of the road a sign post points over a stile indicating the route to Beinn Each. It’s a fine broad ridge of mainly grass with the occasional boulders and small crags but at this time of year there’s plenty to look at by your feet – numerous tiny yellow and white flowers and on the lower slopes, white / purple orchids of some type. I’m not a botanist so don’t ask me what any of them were exactly..but they looked great and certainly took my mind of the fact that my legs were complaining as we plodded up the ridge to the summit at just over 700m.

The summit of Beinn Each is marked with a small cairn of white or light grey stones. It stands out fine against the turf and close by are several mini, mini lochs ..no more than a couple of feet across, each one reflecting the sky above. Beyond this is a proper ridge …not narrow but narrow enough to feel the ground dropping away on both sides and making you feel like you’re on the top of the world …it was wonderful. After a couple of hundred metres though it broadens again before descending around 160 m to a wide beallach, grass covered and dissected with a fine pattern of peat hags. There were also a couple of fine crags, more like mini escarpments, two or three metres high and perhaps thirty metres long. These though weren’t cutting across the width of the hill but instead followed the length of the ridge – rather like the spine of the mountain poking through the peat.

Beyond the almost inconspicuous top of Beinn Lochain there was another slight descent before a final steep little rise to the summit of Doune Hill. It’s quite a spot, far enough away from the A82 with its constant drone of traffic, that as we sat there we could hear no man made sounds what so ever …just the noise of the wind in the grass, an occasional bee or other insect and the regular song of Skylarks. Just what was needed after the busy couple of weeks I’d just had. Bliss in fact! And then of course we had to do it all over again to get back to the car …except that this time the sun had moved and the views all looked different. It’s a wonderful thing the landscape.

Posted in Inspiring Mountain Walks, Mountain Photos Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

    Contact Details

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