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Harris | Scottish Landscape Art - Scottish Landscape Paintings

Posts Tagged ‘Harris’

‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May’

304 ' Snow, rock and water, Harris, May', Graphite on paper, 2013, 70 x 70 cm

‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May’

 

‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May’, Graphite on paper, 2013, 70 x 70 cm

I did this graphite drawing last year after our visit to the Isle of Harris. As the title of the drawing implies, the weather during our stay on the island was somewhat inclement…..mainly rain and gales, topped up with snow one day and some sun. It certainly made the streams very active and the idea for this drawing came after watching a stream full of melt water, tumble over a rocky outcrop. The patterns of the white water against the rock looked very similar to the patches of melting snow on the hills behind. I really liked this scene but hope that we’ll have a little less of the wet stuff when we head up to Assynt later in the month!

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’

3 'Heavy down pour, Harris, May 2013', Acrylic & Pastel,2013, 30 x 30 cm

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’

 

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 30 x 30 cm,

Price: £485

This is the painting on the poster for my forthcoming exhibition at Blairmore Gallery near Dunoon.

Based on one of the many very wet days we experienced while staying on the Isle of Harris earlier this year, it certainly brings back memories of walking through the very rugged and wet mountain landscape on the island.

This small painting will be one of 17 works included in the exhibition at Blairmore Gallery.  The exhibition runs, Tuesday 27th August – Saturday 5th October 2013.  For further details about the gallery and to view the full exhibition, follow the link to their website at the side of this page.

Are you in Edinburgh at the moment?

Visit:  ‘the gallery on the corner’, 34 Northumberland St, Edinburgh, EH3 6LS

'In the Flow Country, Sutherland'

‘In the Flow Country, Sutherland’

It’s a busy and exciting time to be in Edinburgh at the moment, but if you’re already getting a little over ‘festivalled’ and are seeking something a little different to do, why not visit ‘the gallery on the corner’.   In this small contemporary gallery, set on the corner of Northumberland St and Dundas Street, just a short walk from the city centre, you’ll find a wonderful selection of work by a broad range of artists.  It’s the perfect place to get away from the rush of the city and to enjoy some new and different art …..and maybe buy yourself something special.

 I’ve been showing work at ‘the gallery on the corner’ since it opened in 2010 and as patron to the gallery I am, of course, going to be a little biased.  That said though, every time I visit the gallery I always get a really good feeling about it.  It’s bright and welcoming and friendly ….and above all, there’s always a really interesting and exciting selection of work to see.

 Here are images of the three paintings I currently have at the gallery, but to see the full range of artists work available, take a visit to the gallery itself.

'Low tide, Harris'

‘Low tide, Harris’

'On the Pentland Hills, March'

‘On the Pentland Hills, March’

Visiting the Gallery

The gallery is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 11.00am to 5.00pm

 ‘the gallery on the corner’

34 Northumberland St, Edinburgh, EH3 6LS

Tel:   0131 557 8969

“Please note that the gallery does not have wheelchair access. There are seven steps down into the gallery making wheelchair access difficult, however if you contact us prior to visiting we will do our best to accommodate you.”

To learn more about this great little gallery and to see images of some of the other artists work, you can visit their website:

http://www.thegalleryonthecorner.org.uk/

Gallery On The Corner - Map

Gallery On The Corner – Map

‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May 2013’

1-snow-rock-and-water-harris-may-2013-graphite-on-paper-2013-80-x-80-cm

‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May 2013’

 ‘Snow, rock and water, Harris, May 2013’, Graphite on paper, 2013, 80 x 80 cm

 

I’m delighted to say that this new graphite drawing has been included in this years ‘North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition’.  The exhibition preview is tonight and the show then runs for two weeks;

North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition 2013
Racquet Hall
Eglinton Country Park
Kilwinning
Ayrshire

Open to the public
Saturday 13 July – Saturday 27 July 2013
Open: 10 am – 4 pm
I hope you can get along to see this year’s exhibition.

 

Eglinton Country Park

Eglinton Country Park

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’

284-heavy-down-pour-harris-may-2013-acrylic-pastel2013-30-x-30-cm

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’

‘Heavy downpour, Harris, May 2013’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 30 x 30cm

This is the latest 30 x 30 cm acrylic and pastel painting to be completed.  As you probably know, we spent two weeks at the start of May staying on Harris in the Outer Hebrides and saw a lot of weather during our stay!  This small painting tries to capture a scene we saw on several occasions as we drove back through the hills towards the cottage we’d rented in Tarbert.  The hills here are not huge, but are rocky and wild, especially so when the rain and mists envelope them.  The painting is currently at my studio so if you live locally, why not pop in to see it.

Next step

 ' A January morning, Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran'

‘ A January morning, Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’

As any of you who visit my Face Book page will know, I’ve been doing some more drawing this last week.  The drawing, to be titled, ‘Rock, snow and water, Harris, May 2013’ is small than the last few pieces and is square as opposed to rectangular.  I wanted it to be similar in size to the 80 x 80 cm paintings I do and so cut the paper to this size.  As you know though, I do like my drawings to have a rough edge and so the actual image size on the paper is 70 x 70 cm, ….give or take few millimetres, leaving a white border all around..

When we were over on Harris last month we had, to our surprise, one day of heavy sleet and snow.  The following day we did a great little walk through a glen between the hills.  The snow was really quite low on the hillsides …less the 100 m and after a few kilometres the path reached a bealach at about 130m.  Even at this height there were several centimetres of snow on the ground and everything looked quite wild and wintry.   By this time though, it was thawing and the streams were really full, cascading down their rocky beds in a mass of white water and it struck me how similar it looked to the patterns made by the snow lying on the rocky hillsides above.  We spent a long time wondering and looking and I decided that I’d have to do some drawings based on this scene and idea.  ‘Rock, snow and water, Harris, May 2013’ is my first attempt and I’m already working on a second piece that will be more abstract, more about the patterns of marks.

'Rock, snow and water, Harris, May 2013'

‘Rock, snow and water, Harris, May 2013’

Anyway, this first piece is finished I think and I’ve decided that it might be fun to enter it for the forth-coming North Ayrshire Open Art Exhibition.  As you can enter up to two pieces, I’ve decided that I might as well enter one of the other recent graphite drawings too.  Of course, the next step is to decide quite how to have them framed.  I normally use a distressed ‘York’ silver frame with a simple mount behind glass, for my smaller paintings and I had at first thought I do with this.  However, I wasn’t sure whether the silver would work with these quite stark graphite images and so went to my framer at the Waverley Gallery in Prestwick seeking some advice and ideas.

I’ve always found selecting a frame very difficult and so to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to this part of the business.  Amazingly though, Tim had the perfect solution …a very simple charcoal coloured frame.  The moment he put it down against the drawing I knew this was the one and although we tried several other options we came back to this first choice.  To retain the ‘rough’ edge of the drawing, there will be no mount, just the glass sitting directly onto the paper.  I’m quite excited and am looking forward to seeing the pieces framed in this way especially as the second piece I’ve chosen is one of the large Glen Rosa drawings.

Well then, that’s about it for this week.  Nita and I are finally starting to get over the nasty bug we’ve had although my voice is still very rough.  Needless to say there have been a few jokes down at the studios about my needing to take up singing the blues instead of painting!  Of course though, we haven’t been out walking for over three weeks now and have been missing all the fine weather which has been most annoying and now that we’re starting to plan our next outing ….the rain is back on!  Hopefully by next week we’ll have made it out onto a hill and my next blog can include a few nice photos of the Scottish Highlands.

‘Approaching Harris, a damp May evening’

3-approaching-harris-a-damp-may-evening-graphite-on-paper-2013

‘Approaching Harris, a damp May evening’, Graphite on paper, 2013, 125 x 75 cm

Here is the latest of my new graphite drawings.  I started this while we were away on Harris but I was working on a large table in the cottage, (rather than in an upright position on the wall or an easel) and I soon got back ache and gave up!  I completed it on my return to Irvine and I must admit I’m quite pleased with it.

It’s based on the grey wet view we had from the ferry as it approached Harris.  We’d caught the 18.00 ferry from Uig and the weather had turned gloomy, damp and dark by the time we neared Tarbert.  The sea was a little choppy too and as I sat watching the slowly changing scene with the island slowly getting closer and the rain and spray marking the salt covered windows ….I realised it would make an interesting drawing or two.

This is the first one and I’ve already started work on a second …I may even do a third.  Anyway, I hope you like it …this is the first time I’ve tried to do a piece based on the sea, (with a bit of land) …rather than just the mountains and glens.

A great trip to Harris

Towards An Cliseam

Towards An Cliseam

Well, as most of you will know, we’ve just returned from a two week stay on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.  Last May when we stayed up on the north coast of Sutherland, we managed to get a good Internet connection by driving up to a high point just outside the village of Betty Hill.  We had hoped that this year we’d be able to find a similar spot on Harris and I could keep up with the regular Face Book updates and at least one blog.  The fact that this is the first time I’ve written anything since 26 April, will tell you that our hopes were in vain.  We did make an effort and on the first day of our holiday we drove around checking out all the high points on the local roads ….but nothing.  We even drove up to Stornoway to buy a different Internet dongle ….but this was only slightly better.  We did get brief spells where there was a signal …but not long enough to actually use!  So then ….a brief update is probably now called for.

Rough ground - the hills of Harris

Rough ground – the hills of Harris

Neither of us had ever been to Harris before but I’d long hoped to do the trip as I’d read great reports of the hill-walking there.  We’d booked a small cottage in the village of Tarbert and as it turned out it was just two minutes from the ferry terminal, so we could see sea from one of the upstairs windows and the low hills rose up steeply behind the village.  Just to the west of the village the sea once again encroaches and a ten minute drive on the main road opens up spectacular views of the rugged Harris hills.  They really are quite dramatic despite being relatively low.  That said they are very rugged and there is a huge amount of rock everywhere.  The highest point on Harris and the whole of the Outer Hebrides is An Cliseam, a steep sided hill rising to 799 m.  Before getting to the island, I’d hoped that we might get to the top of this hill but with the weather doing its best ….much rain, wind and even snow on one day ….we didn’t even get around to attempting it!   That said, we did have four relatively fine days and managed several good walks with spectacular views.  You really don’t have to get very high on these islands to get huge views and even the numerous small hills of around 300 – 400 m give some rough and exhilarating walking.

Looking south from one of the low hills on Harris

Looking south from one of the low hills on Harris

The coastline is spectacular and on the west side of the island there are some incredible beaches of pale sand.  We did a drive down the west coast on the first Wednesday of the holiday.  The forecast had been poor but it turned out to be an almost clear blue sky making these incredible beaches look like something from the Caribbean …..only the strong and very cold wind told you different!  The following day it started raining at about nine o’clock in the morning and continued for thirteen and a half hours, turning to sleet in Tarbert around lunchtime.  By late afternoon we watched as the local snow plough returned to the village, (with snow caked on the front of it) having been called in action to help clear the main road over the hills to Stornoway.  When we went out the following day we found the snow down to below 100 m and the hills looked spectacular.  What a difference 48 hours makes ….one day walking on a beach in bright sunshine ….two days later walking in several centimetres of slippery snow.  This really is one of the reasons I love having a holiday in NW Scotland in May ….you never quite know what you’re going to get …a bit of winter or a bit of summer.

On one of the numerous granite slabs - photo by Nita

On one of the numerous granite slabs – photo by Nita

I had planned to get some work done this holiday but as usual the drawing stuff stayed in the bag.  I have though come away with some good ideas for new work and in fact I’ve already started one new large drawing.  As we approached the Isle of Harris on the ferry it was gloomy and wet with a slightly choppy sea.  We’d sat in the café by a window looking west and with the rain on and the spray hitting the window ….the view looked very much like one of my paintings or drawings.  This first piece of work since I returned is based on my memories of this slowly changing view.  It’s not finished yet but I’ll get some photos of it posted soon.

Suffice to say, we had a great time and it is a place well worth visiting ….we’ll certainly be going back again another year …it’s a real gem and thoroughly recommended.

Towards the main group of hills on Harris - Photo by Nita

Towards the main group of hills on Harris – Photo by Nita

Waves breaking on a Harris beach - Photo by Nita

Waves breaking on a Harris beach – Photo by Nita

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