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crieff | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘crieff’

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’

177 'Autumn hillside, above Crieff', Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 76 x 23 cm.jpg

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’

 

 ‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2010, 76 x 23 cm

I’m starting to put together a selection of paintings for my forth coming exhibition at the John Muir Trust “Wild Space” gallery in Pitlochry.  I want to include a good selection of paintings based on walks we’ve done in areas closer to Pitlochry.

This painting, based on an autumn afternoon as we descended from the hills above Crieff, is one that I may well include in the show in May and June.  The piece is currently on show in my studio should anyone want to get a preview!

Full details of the “Wild Space” exhibition coming soon.

‘From Carn Chois, above Loch Turret’

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 was recently asked to add a couple of paintings to the selection I have hanging in Braidwoods Restaurant near Dalry.  This is one of the five pieces they now have and it is based on the hills above Loch Turret just to the north of Crieff.  This is an excellent walking area and a wonderful place to see mountain hares.

Anyway, Braidwoods is one of the top restaurants in North Ayrshire and so if you’re visiting it, do look out for my paintings while you’re there.

Braidwoods is around half an hour’s pleasant drive from Glasgow towards the West Coast of Scotland and It is based in Dalry, Ayrshire, KA24 4LN

You can contact the restaurant on 01294 833 544

‘Snow shower, on the slopes of Ben Loyal, Sutherland’

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‘Snow shower, on the slopes of Ben Loyal, Sutherland’

 ‘Snow shower, on the slopes of Ben Loyal, Sutherland’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 76 x 23 cm

Back in May as you may recall, we had two great days walking on Ben Loyal in Sutherland.  On our first attempt at getting to the top of this wonderful hill, we decided to turn back just a few hundred feet below the main broad ridge.  The reason for this was that there was a sudden change in the weather, from bright and sunny to cloud and snow.  The snow showers came in very quickly and for a short while we had some amazing views through the falling snow up to the main ridge above.  I did one 30 x 30 cm painting based on this scene, after we returned from our holiday in Sutherland and this piece sold recently at the Christmas exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff.   I have however been planning to do a second version in the long 76 x 23 cm format.  This is it.  This painting is away being framed at present and will be included in my exhibition at ‘the gallery on the corner’ in Edinburgh throughout March.

‘Towards Beinn Toaig, winter’

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‘Towards Beinn Toaig, winter’

‘Towards Beinn Toaig, winter’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm

I’m using this painting for the ‘Artwork of the Week’ as I’ve just delivered it (along with four other paintings) to The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff. The paintings will be included in the Summer Exhibition at the gallery. Full details of the exhibition can be found by following the link at the side of this page.

‘Towards Beinn Toaig, winter’, is based on a glimpsed view of the hill one winter morning. The cloud was breaking off of the top of the snow topped hill and the colours and patterns were very striking. This is quite a bold version of this view….I used large brushes and quite heavy paint. It is one of my favourites and so I reckon it’s worth your while getting along to see it if you can!!

Away!

'Approaching snow shower, above Braemar'

Work in Speyer exhibition: 'Approaching snow shower, above Braemar'

Wow, after many weeks of painting, wrapping and organising …that’s everything away.  The 13 large boxes containing the 19 paintings for the Speyer exhibition were collected last Friday afternoon and I had an anxious wait until receiving an email saying that they’d arrived safely on Tuesday, phew!   Mike Lauter of the Künstlerbund (the man driving the tandem last August) emailed to say that they were planning to open the boxes and get everything hung on the walls either Thursday or Friday evening this week. So with a bit of luck it’s all in place …or nearly so.  I’m quite looking forward to seeing it all up ….the two galleries at the Künstlerhaus are great for showing work.  The exhibition comprises 8 paintings 80 x 80 cm, 2 paintings 30 x 60 cm, 4 paintings 76 x 23 cm and 5 paintings 30 x 30 cm.  The exhibition preview is at 7pm on Friday 21st October and the Künstlerhaus is open Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23rd, and Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th October.  For more details: www.kuenstlerbund-speyer.de .

Once the work was away to Speyer it was a mad rush to get the other pieces wrapped and ready for delivery to The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff and Queens Gallery in Dundee.  I got up at about half past six in the morning to find the rain pouring down  …not a great day to be loading and unloading paintings ….but the forecast did reckon it’d improve as the morning went on.  We picked the van up at about half past eight, spent a good few minutes trying to discover quite how the fuel cap opened …but eventually filled up and had the 23 paintings packed into the Transit van by about half past ten …luckily the rain had stopped by the time we started loading.

Work in Speyer exhibition.  'Towards Blackmount, winter'

Work in Speyer exhibition: 'Towards Blackmount, winter'

First stop, The Strathearn Gallery.  We were delivering six paintings here..these are going down to London for the Battersea Affordable Art Fair.  This runs from Thursday 20th – Sunday 23rd.  Open Thursday11am – 5.30 pm, Friday, Saturday & Sunday11 am – 6pm.  The Strathearn Gallery will be showing their work at Stand 114.  If you live in London then why not go along.  As well as my own six paintings, you’ll see a great selection of work by other Scottish and Scotland based artists at The Strathearn Gallery stand 114.

Work in Speyer exhibition: 'Towards Beinn Toaig, winter'

Work in Speyer exhibition: 'Towards Beinn Toaig, winter'

After a quick bite to eat, it was on to Dundee to deliver the 17 paintings for my exhibition at the Queens Gallery.  It’s always a little worrying when arriving at galleries with a van …where to park while unloading?  This time we were remarkably lucky …we found a spare space right opposite the gallery and so it was an easy job moving the paintings.  This exhibition opens on Saturday 22nd October and runs until November 5th.  At the same time there will also be an exhibition of work by other gallery artists.  For more details:  http://www.queensgallery.co.uk/exhibitions.html .  A late change of date for this exhibition means that I’ll be away in Germany and will therefore be unable to attend the preview.  If you’re living within driving distance of the gallery then do go along and see the show, it contains a good number of new paintings including three of the new 80 x 80 cm pieces.  I’ll be posting images of some of these paintings in next week’s blog.

So then, everything is away …..…and I’ll be away too, as from Wednesday.  With any luck I should be getting ready for the preview of the Speyer exhibition in exactly one weeks time.  It’s a long way to travel so I’m not expecting too many of you to get over to see it …but with work in both London and Dundee over the next few weeks, hopefully a few of you will get to see some of my new paintings.

‘Drumochter sketch’

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 .

Light relief

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.

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’

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'Autumn-hillside, above Crieff'

‘Autumn hillside, above Crieff’, Acrylic and pastel, 76 x 23 cm.

This is one of my recent paintings and is one of several that I have been working on based on the beautiful upland countryside near Crieff, in Perthshire. We have walked these hills on a number of occasions and under very different conditions. Only a year ago, we were forced to retreat from the upper slopes of Ben Chonzie by an increasingly ferocious, winter gale, but when we visited earlier this autumn, we saw the landscape in fine weather. As we started to descend, the late afternoon sun picked out the vivid autumn colours.

This painting will be exhibited as part of my exhibition at The Strathearn Gallery in February.

A quick trip to Crieff


'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.

Research work!

Ben Chonzie from Meall na Seide

Ben Chonzie from Meall na Seide

When I first set up my studio at the Courtyard Studios in Irvine, my work was based around the man made landscapes of the town and its Harbourside area.  Although I’ve been a keen hill-walker for much of my life I’d  never combined the two interests of walking and painting.  By 2004 though, we were getting out into the Scottish hills on a very regular basis and it was while out on what was my very first real winter walk with our local mountaineering club Air na Creagan, (check out their website www.craggy.org.uk ) that it suddenly dawned on me that I was missing a trick and that I really ought to use my experiences whilst out in the landscape, as the subject for my paintings.  By this time I’d started to get a bit of a reputation at the Courtyard; if the weather was fine I would not be found in my studio …..I’d be out on a hill somewhere!  So then, it made perfect sense to start painting the wilder parts of the Scottish landscape ….and of course, now my days away on the hill could be called research work!

As I’ve said in the past I’ve been invited to put on a solo show of work at The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff  for a month starting on the 12th of February 2011.  For anyone who hasn’t visited this gallery, it’s a fantastic space and Fiona (the gallery owner) has said I’ll need around 40 – 45 pieces ….so quite a lot of work.   As Crieff is situated close to the wild heather clad moors around Loch Turret, it seems to make sense to try to do some paintings based on this area for the exhibition in February.

Anita and I visited Loch Turret back in the late winter / early spring and had a wonderful day wandering the hills.  At the time there was still quite a good deal of snow around and the loch was completely frozen …it was some sight.   So then, last Sunday we decided to head back there and to do a bit more wandering.  I hoped to see it in its autumn colours and to perhaps do some sketching and take some photos.

Picnic Spot

Picnic Spot

The forecast for the weekend was for sun and cold northerly wind ….and for the chance of some snow on the higher tops …especially further north.  As it turned out  Nita spotted the snow up on our hills, from just north of Stirling on the A9.  It looked quite wintry and it didn’t seem any time at all since I was complaining about the heat over in Speyer …where had all the time gone?!

When we got to the dam everything looked beautiful with the autumn colours of the grass, bracken and heather on the lower slopes and the bright white of the snow above about 700m.  But there was a biting cold wind blowing down from the north and I decided that there was little point in taking the sketch book – it would be just too cold.   We followed the same route as back in the spring and although in the wind the conditions were quite severe, once out of it and in the sun, it was really very pleasant. Oh well, too far to go back and get the sketch book. But the light and colours were great. As we got near our high point at a little over 750m we were just into the snow and Ben Chonzie, a couple of kilometres further to the north, looked quite white.

We took a rather circuitous route back, but one that gave us great views down into the strath below. The sun was getting very low as we descended the steep slopes back to the dam and the hillside opposite was coloured vivid yellows and ochres in the late light. It was quite an end to the day and I have come away with a number of ideas for new paintings. Quite a good day’s work!

Late Sun

Late Sun