‘West, above the Blackwater Reservoir’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2009, 76 x 23 cm
The forecast for the weekend is for a little bit more winter. I thought therefore that I’d have one of my wintry paintings for the current work of the week. I did this piece a few years ago and it’s based on the view we had from Leum Ulilleim. This is a 906 m hill that lies just to the SW of Corrour Station on the West Highland line.
I had been with a group from the local club staying at the bunkhouse at the station and on the Saturday Guy and I headed for Leum Uilleum. It’s quite a prominent hill from the station and makes for a good circuit. We had a day of bright sun and very heavy snow showers and it was quite an exhilarating day for me …being the first proper winter walk I’d done. As we stopped for lunch at a low point on the back of the hill, the clouds broke to give this wonderful snowy view out over the Blackwater Reservoir. It didn’t last too long though and by the time we’d plodded our way up to the neighbouring top it was snowing hard again. We finished our day though under almost cloud free skies and even had time before catching the train home to walk over to the end of Loch Ossian.