Scottish Landscape Art – Scottish Landscape Paintings

'A winter morning east of Drumochter'

‘A winter morning, east of Drumochter’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 60 x 30 cm

As you know, I’ve been working on the larger 80 x 80 cm paintings much of this year and so it’s been quite enjoyable since returning from Germany, to work on some smaller pieces again.   This is one of them, based on a very cold day I spent with my mate Guy the other year on the hills to the east of Drumochter Pass.   Once you’ve hauled yourself up the steep flanks of these hills from the road, it’s a high, bleak and very wild area of undulating moor.  Two of the higher bumps are classified as Munros and lie I guess, about four miles apart.  We walked the two ‘hills’ on a layer of snow that held your weight for an instant….and then gave way as you transferred your weight!  It was very hard work especially as we were walking for much of the day into a very strong and bitterly cold wind.  We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the car in the last light of the day and we both agreed that we might not return to these two hills ….but strangely enough we do both remember this very tiring day….it was a bit of an epic!