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Glen Rosa | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘Glen Rosa’

Full circle, Glen Rosa to Lochranza

When we set out with our friend Guy Hansford several years ago on a cold, grey January to walk up Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran, I had no idea that this was to be the start of a lengthy and quite far reaching art project.  Indeed, we had walked through this magnificent Scottish glen on a good few occasions over the previous 10 years and the sole purpose of the days walk was to have a good time amongst the wild and wintry mountains of Arran.

Isle of Arran

Below Cir Mhor, Glen Rosa

The day really was a good one with wonderful misty views up into the snow covered mountains, watching them come and go as the cloud drifted through and around the rocky peaks and ridges.  At the head of the glen underneath Cir Mhor, the snow was right down to the base of the glen, creating marvellous patterns of light and dark on the rocky ground.   As the walk was an easy one even for a short winter day, we had plenty of time to stop and look.  A longer break among piles of snow covered boulders near the head of the glen, gave me a real chance to sit and look at this amazing array of peaks curving around us.

Glen Rosa, Arran

Walking with Dr David Feeney and Dan Thornton in Glen Rosa, March 2013

I don’t quite know when the idea came to me but at some point that day, I realised that this was the scene I’d been looking for, for some time …… a scene that I could base a very large drawing on.  A couple of years earlier while I was working in the German city of Speyer, I created a big pastel drawing of the city’s huge cathedral and on returning to Scotland had decided that I’d like to do some thing on a similar scale but based on the Scottish landscape.  Now, after two years of looking, I had my subject.

Just a couple of months later, I was back in Glen Rosa with the sole purpose of starting to work out how I might go about creating a very big drawing based on walking up the glen.  However, as you already know, in the intervening time, I’d met Dan Thornton, a Seattle based landscape photographer and independent film maker and Nita and I had invited him and his colleague Dr David Feeney, to join us on the walk.  Of course, we did a lot of talking during the day and of course I started telling them about my plans for the big drawing.  By the end of that day, my plans for the work were much more advanced and what previously had seemed like a ‘maybe’ idea had now become a definite project.  I would definitely be doing the drawing and it seemed highly likely that Dan and David would be making some kind of film linked to it.  It was suddenly very exciting.

It took me another almost two years to work out not just how to do the piece but also where to create it.  2013 saw me back in Glen Rosa with Nita in order for me to make a series of sketches and take many photos.  From these and the many hours of sitting and looking and thinking, I started creating some large graphite works.  These  eight or nine pieces were about 125 cm x 85 cm and were important exercises in using a range of graphite sticks along with soft erasers to see if I could create large scale scribbled landscapes. …. in what would have to be double quick time!

As these works progressed and it became evident that a very large work using this method would be possible, I started to work on the more practical side of the project ….exactly where to do the drawing.  I wanted to create the work in a public place so that it was not just me doing a drawing but more like a performance piece.  Luckily our local Harbour Arts Centre has a 5m long wall in their main gallery and so it was simply a case of persuading them to let me use if for 5 or 6 weeks.  The solution was for me to offer them a traditional exhibition of paintings in the gallery spaces but to cover the big wall with paper and then for me to create the drawing through the course of the exhibition.  By this time Dan was fully involved in making an hour long documentary about my work, hill walking and the role my visual impairment has played in both.  The film was to be centred on the Glen Rosa drawing project.

HAC 2015

The finished Glen Rosa drawing, Harbour Arts Centre, January 2015

The exhibition took place in December last year and for 17 days I was in the main gallery scribbling away ….finishing it with plenty of time to spare.  One of the ideas behind this was to make the creation of the drawing public …not just for those able to visit the centre, but to a much wider audience…..by using the web.  Initial plans to have a live web cam were changed and in the end we went for filming each days work with a time lapse camera …and then posting the short one minute long films on-line.  A local arts company Model X Media, took on the job of doing this part of the project and it proved very successful.  For those of you who haven’t seen these rather ‘Chaplin-esque’ clips … here’s a link: “In Sun, Snow, Mist and Rain”

With the drawing completed, I decided to offer it to North Ayrshire Council and they have been great in helping to promote it.  One off shoot of this is that they have recently had a full size (5m long x 1.5m high) print made and this has been laminated onto aluminium panels and sited in the centre of Irvine.  I have to say that I am very pleased with the result and it’s a great way of promoting my work.

Finally, the drawing is going over to the Isle of Arran Distillery Visitor Centre for two months starting in a few days on 1st September.  The distillery is in Lochranza at the north end of the island and is situated right beneath the mountains that the drawing is based on.  It’s probably only a few miles as the eagle flies, from the distillery to the head of Glen Rosa.  So then, full circle …with Dan and one of his crew flying in from Seattle tomorrow to film the final shots of the documentary ….the drawing going to Arran.

  Please spread the word and do pop in to the Isle of Arran Distillery Visitor Centre to see the drawing if you are over on the island between 1st September and 31st October.  Prints of the big drawing will be available for purchase at the distillery or can be bought direct from my studio.

10 hours of quiet after 2 weeks of running around!

It has been an exceedingly busy last couple of weeks and to be honest I’ve been struggling to get everything done that has needed to be done. … hence the lack of a blog recently.  I spent a lot of time getting all the work ready for my exhibition at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh that opened on 7th August.  In the end I took 24 framed pieces along with 9 small unframed graphite sketches.  It’s amazing just how much time it takes getting everything into frames and wrapped.  Even making the labels is a very time consuming business although I was luckily able to sub contract this and other computer based jobs to my unpaid assistant and partner Nita.  Without her help with these projects, I don’t know how long it would take me to get everything done.  We got it all completed and on the morning of Saturday 1st August we packed it all into the car and headed across to Edinburgh.   It was such a relief when the work was in the gallery and I could pass on responsibility for the show to assistant gallery manager Paul Penrice and his assistants.  They did a wonderful job of hanging the work and the gallery looked great when we arrived for the preview the following Friday evening.  The exhibition continues until August 29th so you have plenty of time to get along there if you live in or are visiting the city.

Other jobs have included visiting the Isle of Arran Distillery, (I know, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it!)….. in order to finalise arrangements for exhibiting the big Glen Rosa drawing there in September and October.  Everything appears to be on track with this project and I’m really looking forward to going over with the work on 1st September.   As this is the final part of the story about this drawing project, Dan Thornton and his assistant Cindy are returning to Scotland from Seattle at the end of the month in order to film the drawing going to Arran.  This will be the final part of the documentary Dan is making and then it all comes down to getting the hours and hours of film he has taken over the last two years, edited.  This is not just an important part of the process; it’s also quite an expensive one.  As such, Dan and his colleagues have been working on a promotional ‘Seed & Spark’ campaign to help promote awareness of the film and to raise some of the funds needed to complete it.  Details of this campaign along with a link to the short trailer Dan has made can be found on the homepage of this website.  I also had 500 flyers printed with the same information and Nita and I spent a day last week distributing them around venues in Ayrshire and Arran.  Anyway, please check it out and please spread the word!    Thank you.

Along with all this, Nita and I are spending quite a bit of time helping to organise this years Open studios Weekend at the Courtyard Studios.  It’s looking like it should be a good one this year with all 17 artists taking part.  There is a really excellent group of artists working here at present and there is a wide range of top quality work being produced here, including paintings, photography, drawings, ceramics, music, hand book-binding and jewellery.  The event takes place on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October 2015 and will also include collaboration with the Harbour Arts Centre where we’ll be holding a group exhibition to celebrate 21 years of artistic practise at the Courtyard.  I’ll be posting full details of these events nearer the time ….but for now …just pencil in the dates!

There have been lots of other things happening recently, all taking up much needed painting time.  There is good news on two of the most important projects.  The Brazil commissions got bogged down somewhat since I completed the work at the end of February.  Difficulties arose with shipping the artwork to Brazil and over the last five and a half months Nita and I have spent hours it seems writing emails in order to resolve this.  It has been a bit tiring but I’m pleased to say things are starting to happen…..so then, watch this space!  The other project related to the big Glen Rosa drawing, was the planned production of a full size reproduction that was to be sited in the centre of Irvine.  Well, as you may have seen from my Facebook page….. the work is now finished and sited.  It was great going to see it the other evening and if you’re in Irvine or travelling on one of the many buses entering and exiting the town …do look out for it.  My thanks must go to Lesley Forsyth at North Ayrshire Council for first coming up with the idea and then bringing it to a successful conclusion.

As I say, it’s been a hectic time and on Thursday last week we were both feeling pretty worn out.   With a fine weather forecast we decided that we just had to get out into the wilds and have a day relaxing.  We went to Glen Coe and spent 10 hours wandering around some of these fabulous mountains.  We only saw two other walkers all day and although our legs were sore at the end, it was a very much needed rest.  No more words about it…. here are a few quiet and calming photos instead.

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On the north side of Glen Coe

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Towards Am Bodach from P.907m

Scottish mountains

Am Bodach and Glen Coe from our lunch spot

scottish mountains

Towards sron Garbh …. our final top of the day

scottish mountains

Ben Nevis from the summit of Sron Garbh

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‘The Saddle from Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran, March’

5 'The Saddle from Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran, March', Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 76 x 23 cm

‘The Saddle from Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran, March’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 76 x 23 cm

Price: £720

Price after 1st September, 2015: £1008

Well then, if you’ve just read my current blog you’ll see that we had some very unseasonable weather up in Assynt recently.  It wasn’t quite as wintry as this but there was snow falling on the high tops on a couple of days and it was certainly as dark and misty on many occasions.

Anyway, this painting is currently on display as part of my exhibition, “All four seasons” at the John Muir Trust Wild Space Visitor Centre in Pitlochry.  If you are travelling up or down the A9 anytime before the 29th June, do call in to see the show.

Blog 250 staggering at times, but not quite out!

Wow, I can’t quite believe I’ve written 250 of these blogs …but well that’s what the records say. My first blog was posted on 3rd March 2009 and talked about the exhibition I’d just had at Great Glen House in Inverness. This is the headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage and it was a very interesting place to exhibit my work. I have to say that it doesn’t seem like over five years since Nita and I hired a van and drove up to Inverness with the paintings.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

A lot has happened since that show in 2009. The following summer saw me living and working as guest artist with the Künstlerbund in the city of Speyer in southern Germany. I worked there for four months and had a really enjoyable and exciting time, creating I think, 14 paintings and 3 pastel drawings. One of these drawings was the large 4.5 m x 1.5m drawing based on the vast great cathedral that dominates the centre of the city.

Just before leaving Scotland to travel to Speyer, I was asked to act as patron to “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh. This magnificent little gallery is run by Autism Initiative Scotland and works both as a professional gallery supporting artists affected by autism and other health issues, and as a place for young people affected by autism to learn new skills in retail gallery work and / or practical art …in the workshops attached to the gallery. It was a fantastic launch in April that year and since then; the gallery has gone from strength to strength. Many trainees have completed their apprenticeships and are producing some excellent work. I’ve been privileged to be part of this project and try and visit several times each year to follow the progress of the gallery ….and indeed to exhibit some of my own work there. In 2013 I was invited to hold an exhibition there and it was during the preview for this show that I first met Dan Thornton ….the Seattle based landscape photographer and documentary maker

Talking at the gallery that night, Dan and I quickly realised that although we worked in very different ways, we both thought very similarly about the landscape. Before the evening ended, Dan and his colleague David Feeney asked if they could join Anita and me on our next walk into the hills.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

As it happened, the next walk we’d planned was to go back to Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran. Just a couple of months earlier we had been walking in this magnificent glen with our friend Guy. It had been a very cold day with snow on the higher slopes of the hills and large patches right down to river level at the head of the glen. As I walked up the glen that day I first started to think about doing another Speyer sized drawing. Where as that drawing had been based on the idea of walking around the cathedral, I thought I could do another based on walking through Glen Rosa. When Dan and David joined us for this second walk in the glen….. I started to tell them about my plans for the drawing.

As you know, my plans came to fruition and just a few months ago I created this new large 4.5m x 1.5m drawing. After the walk that day, Dan had asked if I’d be interested in him making a full hour long documentary about my work and its close connection to the Scottish landscape. He was particularly interested in focusing it on the big Glen Rosa drawing project. Since the walk in 2013, Dan has made a number of visits to Scotland and has taken many hours of footage for the documentary. As I write we are now at the stage of seeking sponsorship to cover the costs of editing and producing the film. It’s all come along way since our meeting at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh.

Of course, much else has happened since my first blog. I’ve had plenty of exhibitions and have walked many Scottish hills and glens in this time. It’s been a very exciting period of my life and this last six months with the trip to Brazil and the subsequent commissions has continued in a similar way. And it’s still going on.

Just last week, my colleague Alex Boyd, told me that he had been speaking with the people at the Isle of Arran Distillery and had told them about my work and the big glen Rosa drawing. They’ve been in contact with me and have asked me if I could hold an exhibition in their exhibition space during September and October. They are particularly keen to show the large Glen Rosa piece and have a perfect 5m long wall for it. I’m really delighted with this opportunity as I’m very interested in seeing the big drawing touring around Ayrshire…..and in particular going to the Isle of Arran. The distillery really is the perfect place for it as it is located beneath the very mountains on which the drawing is based. A very big thanks to Alex for opening up this opportunity for me.

So then, there’s lots of work to do to get ready for the three exhibitions that I have lined up this summer. First though, is to get 3 large pieces ready for the “Ailsa Gallery” who will be taking the work to the Glasgow Art Fair at the end of April. After that, I have my exhibition at the John Muir Trust “Wild Space” in Pitlochry during May and June and then quickly followed in August with an exhibition at “the gallery on the corner” in Edinburgh again.

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Exhibition at Great Glen House, September 2009

Right then, that’s the end of blog 250. Here’s hoping that there will be many more things to write about over the next five or so years as I creep my way towards Blog 500!

 

Link to Press Releases and Information created over the last few years.

“Listening to Arran”, or “Us humans are very noisy you know”

Approaching the Isle of Arran

Approaching the Isle of Arran

Yesterday Nita and I spent five hours over on the Isle of Arran.  We weren’t up in the snow covered hills, or enjoying the wilds of Glen Rosa or Sannox however, instead we simply took our time wandering along the shore-line from the ferry to Brodick Castle gardens and back.  Now then, I know I haven’t been getting out walking much this last few months, but even I’m not that unfit that it takes me five hours to walk this relatively short distance!

If you follow my Face Book page, (Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist) you’ll have seen that I’ve been pondering over how I might develop my work if the little bit of sight I currently have, deteriorates.   Apart from the obvious solution, to return to making sculpture, I have over the last couple of years been thinking about the possibilities of using sound in some way to compliment the paintings and drawings.

You’ll remember that when I created the big Glen Rosa drawing last month, I had arranged for a time lapse camera to be fitted to record each days work.  This was done by Graham Byron and his team at Model X Media and as Graham is the sound engineer at the Harbour Arts Centre, Nita suggested to me that I ask him for advice about how I might create outdoor sound recordings.  I spent some time explaining what I was thinking of trying to do and he very kindly offered to lend me some recording equipment and show me how to use it.

So then, the purpose of yesterday’s leisurely stroll around Brodick Bay to the castle and back was for me to tryout the small recorder Graham lent me.  I’d already tried it out a couple of times along the harbour side here in Irvine and so had, I thought, a rough idea of which buttons to press.  Well, it wasn’t quite that easy. When you can’t read the screen and are basically a bit of a technology dork…. even four buttons can be a bit confusing when you’re out there in the field!!  My first attempt at recording some sound, (at the point where the path crosses a wee bridge very close to the sea shore) was a bit of an epic.  Needless to say I couldn’t get the recorder to work!  Nita came to the rescue and pointed out that the batteries were flat.  After that, with a new set of batteries, I was off and running …or stumbling.  I thought it would be nice to record the twin sounds of the waves breaking on the shore to my right and the water slopping around in the stream to my left.  Simple…..only I’d forgotten that the path over the bridge was a popular one and after just a few seconds of recording, a small school party on bicycles trundled by. Not too bad you’d have thought, only that one of the children fell off their bike, (luckily no damage done) but there was much kafuffle.  It was amazing ….the wee microphone caught it all!

We continued along the shore with me stopping regularly to record some more sounds.  After two or three attempts I was fairly confident that I was pushing the right buttons and I started to think more about the sounds around me and how I might use them with my work.  The microphone was really quite sensitive and picked up a very broad range of sounds ….giving great depth to the recordings.  Of course, I found that there was a huge amount of “noise pollution”, (not all of it made by me I hasten to add).  However, at one point in the grounds of Brodick castle I thought I’d try record the sound of a very small stream of water that was trickling over some rocks.  No sooner had I started the recording than a fishing boat out in the bay, fired up its marine diesel, a vehicle came along the road behind us and a plane flew overhead on its way to Prestwick airport …..and I started swearing! We humans are very noisy!   Of course though, it didn’t matter.  I was just out to see what the machine would do and what kind of problems I might encounter ….it was all good fun.

A fuzzy Beinn Nuis ....I think!

A fuzzy Beinn Nuis ….I think!

On our return to the ferry, I’d made about 20 short recordings and the whole process had started to make me think about my work in a slightly different way.  I still haven’t a clue how I might use sound in my work, but I’m very excited after this first day out with the recorder.  I think there are a lot of possibilities.  I now have to ask Graham to show me the next step, of downloading the recordings onto my PC and how to edit them.  This blog is therefore; very silent ….but watch out, future blogs could get very noisy!

An invitation . . .

An invitation to see the Glen Rosa drawing, Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine

Exhibition “End view”, 8th January 2015, 7pm – 9pm

An invitation…

This large graphite drawing is now just about finished.  I plan to leave it for the next couple of weeks before returning to it at the start of January.  I’ll then have four or five days in which to do any final work needed.  I started the piece just over three weeks ago on November 25th and so it’s taken me a lot less time than I’d originally thought.

As you’ve seen, the drawing has been built up in a series of layered marks.  The early stages being pretty time consuming as I gradually covered the paper in a series of scribbled marks.  As each layer went in though, the structure of the piece started to become more apparent and once this was completed, I started changing the nature of the marks I was making.  I used a much softer (9B) graphite pencil to generate darker and much bolder marks, especially in the foreground.

The drawing however was always meant to be based on a day back in January 2012 when I walked Glen Rosa with Nita and our friend Guy.  It was a very cold day and at the head of the glen the snow came right down to the banks of the river.  It was a wild scene of snow and rock and mist.  So then, in order to try and create the feel of this winter morning, I started to use a soft rubber to cut back through the graphite, creating negative marks that give the impression of snow and cloud.  This was actually quite hard work as the rubber quickly gets covered with graphite and I constantly had to clean it so that I did not get dirty looking smudges all over the piece..

At the moment, I’m quite pleased with the way it’s looking.  It certainly captures the scale of the place and I think conveys quite well what it can be like in amongst the Scottish hills in winter.  That said, I also like the fact that when you get close to it you are just left with a complex series of lines and marks……it’s quite abstract

The drawing will be in the gallery until the end of the exhibition on January 9th.  If you haven’t already seen it, do call in some time or accept this invitation to the exhibition “End view” on the evening of 8th January,  7pm – 9pm …..It should be a good event and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible.

Ahead of schedule

Last Wednesday afternoon at about half past four I stood back from the big Glen Rosa drawing and decided that it was probably finished.  When I planned the project, all I knew was that I’d have around 35 days in which to complete it.  To be honest I really wasn’t sure that it would be enough time but there was really no way of knowing.   Over the previous 18 months I’d done eight or nine double A1 size “test” drawings to see amongst other things, just how long it would take me to do this size drawing using graphite pencils.  These smaller pieces took around 5 days work…..so I kind of figured that I should have enough time to do the large piece.

Glen Rosa drawing, detail

Glen Rosa drawing, detail

Regardless of how much I planned, there were however, still many unknown factors when it came to the large drawing.  One of these was of course, how much time I spent talking!  Working in a public gallery in a busy arts centre meant that many people would be walking by watching the drawing develop.  This was an important part of the project but before starting I just didn’t know quite how busy it would be and quite how much time I’d spend talking rather than drawing.  As it turned out, the balance was just about right for me.  There have been plenty of people stopping to look comment and chat but there has also been ample time in between, for me to get down to work.

Glen Rosa drawing detail - 2

Glen Rosa drawing detail – 2

I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed working in the gallery in the Harbour Arts Centre.  It’s a magnificent space and the main wall is just perfect for creating a large piece of work.  The project seems to have generated a lot of interest too and hopefully will have encouraged a few folk with their own artistic endeavours.

Glen Rosa drawing detail - 3

Glen Rosa drawing detail – 3

I’ll be popping into the gallery to tidy up and remove the large piece of paper I taped to the floor to catch all the graphite and bits of rubber.  Then, it will be about done I guess.  Of course, as you know, I do like to give these things a little time and now that I’m ahead of schedule I can let this huge drawing settle while I go back to my studio and start work on the Brazil commissions.  I’ll pop in to see the drawing most days and then, if I feel that there are any parts of it that need a little extra work, I can do this in the final week before the “End view” on January 8th, between 7pm and 9pm.

Finished drawing

Finished drawing

I do hope you’ve enjoyed following the progress of this piece of work…..especially if you’ve managed to get into the HAC to see things for real, or if you’ve been following  the short time lapse videos that Graham, Tosh and the team at Model X Media have been recording and posting on line each day.  You can find out more about this great Ayrshire based company by visiting their website: www.modelxmedia.com .

These blogs have been a little few and far between over the last two months or so but I’ll try to get things back to a normal weekly routine soon.  In the meantime, I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas.

The First Week: Glen Rosa Drawing Project – Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine

“Glen Rosa Drawing Project – Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine – 27th November 2014 – 9th January 2015”

The first week!

Well then, yesterday saw me reach the end of day 7 on this huge drawing. As you can see, we didn’t get video of the first 3 days but in all honesty, it was pretty tedious! I have, as you know, been working on a whole series of test drawings in which I’ve tried to experiment with both the way I use the graphite and the overall composition. I have then a reasonable idea of the very basic composition and the type of image I want the finished piece to be, but of course, as soon as you increase the scale…everything is different. As such the first day was spent tediously measuring out the drawing area into rough blocks 0.75m x 0.75m and then very vaguely marking in a few of the main elements of the drawing.

Days 2 and 3 were pretty daunting as I wanted to cover the entire area of the drawing with finely scribbled line. The purpose of this is to give me something to start working in to and on to. This entire drawing is going to be created using different types of scribbled line; some thin and feint, some broad and dark, using 9B graphite pencils. As I said, putting in the first layer of fine marks seemed never ending. I started at the right hand side and worked my way left, but just like climbing a steep hill, where the summit never seems to get any closer, here the left hand edge of the drawing always seemed out of reach!… perhaps if I hadn’t spent so much time talking, drinking coffee and going for lunch, I may have reached the end of the first layer sooner!

From this point onwards I have been trying to create the basic structure of the drawing. My viewpoint is up at the head of Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran, where the mountains curve around in a great arc. In this drawing I have, to start with, tried to indicate the shapes of the principal peaks and ridges. As with all my work, I’m not trying to produce an accurate record of the view or skyline, but merely create something that gives the feel of the place. Interestingly, I’ve had a number of people come up to me who’ve seen the drawing at this stage and who have immediately said that it looked like Glen Rosa.

I’ve almost completed this second stage of the drawing and have about another hours’ work to do…then things start becoming more interesting. In the next few days, I’ll be starting to increase the tones and scale of marks and will be starting to use erasers to rub back through the different layers. It’s very exciting and I’m thoroughly enjoying doing this piece. The Harbour Arts Centre is a great location for such a project and it is already generating a lot of interest, as visitors to the centre find this strange artist madly scribbling away. If you live in the area, do pop in at some stage. It would be great to see you. If I’m running out of time to get the drawing completed, I may just give you a pencil and tell you to get scribbling!

Finally, back blogging again!

“In sun, snow mist and rain”
An exhibition and drawing project by Keith Salmon
Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine. 28th November 2014 – 9th January 2015

Well then, it’s been a good few weeks since my last blog and I can only apologise. I occasionally miss an odd week but in over four years have never missed 5 weeks on a row! As anyone who follows my Face Book page, Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist will know, I became unwell while away in Brazil at the start of October and unfortunately got worse on my return to Scotland. It ended up with me in hospital for 11 days and it’s been a slow recovery since getting home…..hence no blog! A very big thanks to all the staff on ward 3F at Crosshouse Hospital…..they looked after me so well.

Anyway, I’m getting back to normal now although playing catch-up with all the plans for my exhibition and drawing project at the Harbour Arts Centre ……opening on Thursday evening, 27th November, 7pm – 9pm. Of course, of course, Nita took up the reins while I was in hospital and kept everything on course for me. Thankfully all the paintings were ready and it was the organisational side, emails, getting the posters and invitation printed and out…….etc, that needed doing. She did a great job and I’m expecting a hefty bill when her invoice comes in!!!! So then, a big thank you to her for all the work she has done for me over the last six weeks ……as well as visiting me twice daily while I was in the hospital. I think she is more exhausted than I am. I think I need to buy her some chocolate or something!

The exhibition, containing I think, 31 paintings, was hung on Thursday last week. It was a little earlier than planned as Joe and Graham who normally hang the exhibitions at the HAC are both on holiday this week. They did an excellent job and I’m very pleased with the way it all looks and have already had some good comments from visitors to the centre. The big 4.5 m x 1.5m piece of paper is up on the wall and ready for me to start work on the Glen Rosa drawing. Having a few days extra now, I’ve decided to start work on it a little early……tomorrow in fact. This will be quite good for the preview though as it’ll mean there will be the start of the drawing for people to see, rather than a big blank piece of paper. I can’t wait to start ….it’s really exciting.

We’ll be making short time lapse recordings of each days work and these will go up on-line. I haven’t the full details yet but will post this information ASAP. I’ll make sure we have a link from my website to the footage so that anyone not living close by can follow the progress of the drawing. Of course I’ll not be working there every day as I want to start doing a bit of walking again. I lost well over a stone in weight and all my hard work at getting fit over the last 10 months has gone with the illness. I’ll probably start with a couple of low level walks to get the legs back into action before thinking about going up a hill again. I’ll no doubt keep you up to date with all the agonies of getting fit again!!

Right then, I do hope some of you can get along to the Preview on Thursday evening or manage to call into the Harbour Arts Centre to see the exhibition and the big drawing at some point over the next month or so. I look forward to meeting you. Please help spread the word ….thank you.

Keith Salmon Harbour Arts Centre Exhibition 2014

Keith Salmon Harbour Arts Centre Exhibition 2014

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Glen Rosa test drawing 3

Glen Rosa test drawing

Glen Rosa test drawing

‘Glen Rosa test drawing 3’, Graphite stick on paper.

I’ve spent a number of days over the last two weeks creating several of these small graphite drawings. They are helping me to work out the basic composition for the big drawing I’ll be doing at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine between November 27th and January 12th. This recent small piece is about 70cm long and so is a mere sketch compared with the final big piece which will be 450 cm long and 150 cm high. These small drawings can’t possibly show what the larger drawing will look like as the scale of the marks will be completely different ……but they are starting to focus my ideas.. I’ll probably create several more such pieces before I start work on the big drawing in November.

For those of you living within striking distance of Irvine, you’ll be able to visit the gallery while I’m working on the big drawing, watch the progress and let me know your thoughts about the piece. Alternatively we’ll be filming the work each day with a time lapse camera and this will be put on-line at the end of each day so that you can follow the progress from wherever you live.

My big drawing project starts on 27th November 2014 at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine, Ayrshire and will be part of an exhibition of my Scottish Landscape work. I’ll also be doing a talk about the work at some point during the course of the exhibition and I’ll be posting full details a little nearer the time.