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Posts Tagged ‘river irvine’

A wander around town

Our first walk of this New Year did not, for once, involve a long drive up into the Highlands.  Instead it started at the front door of our house in the Girdle Toll housing estate on the edge of Irvine.   Nita just had one day off work between two lots of shifts, so to go for any kind of walk was pushing it a bit.   That said however, the weather yesterday here in Irvine, was really quite fine.  Sunny dry days have been few and far between this last year and so we decided we’d better get out and make the most of it. Hence, a local walk …a very local walk….. following the route of Irvine’s New Town Trail.

River Irvine: New Town Trail

View from the Irvine New Town Trail

I’ve walked this path a couple of times over the last fifteen years and it makes for a very pleasant wander.  The route passes within a couple of hundred metres of our house, following the line of an old railway track.   As it’s a circular route around Irvine we could go either way, but decided to save the best bit …through Eglinton Country Park, till last, and so headed left along the path, following it as it wanders through trees and grass, skirting one of the housing estates.   Beyond this, it continues, picking its way through a large built up area before reaching a small river, which it then follows closely for several kilometres. This stream joins the River Irvine on the edge of the town centre, close to a new, rather over the top road bridge.

The River Irvine on the New Town Trail

The River Irvine

The River Irvine looked very tranquil yesterday with various ducks paddling around…..such a contrast to the dreadful scenes of flooding over in Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire …. for once, I guess it was a case of the sunny west.  The path follows the banks of the River Irvine and  as it goes underneath the main shopping mall, we took advantage and dropped off for coffee and a sandwich in one of the cafes and then headed on our way.   The full circuit of the New Town Trail is, I think, about 12 miles long and as we started again after lunch we suddenly realised we only had a couple of hours of daylight left …..we’d been dawdling too much!  Not wanting to walk through the country park in the dark, we picked up the pace and were soon making our way past the wonderful area of wetland that lies between the River Irvine and River Garnock. It looked beautiful in the low afternoon sun  and we just had to stop and take in the scene.  Further to the west Nita said she could just make out the Isle of Arran across the Firth of Clyde …but its hills were shrouded in mist.

The River Irvine

The River Irvine …perfect for ducks!

After crossing the River Garnock by a small road bridge, the path turns and follows the banks of the river, up stream to the edge of Kilwinning.  This is a particularly nice bit of the route and the late afternoon winter colours looked great again.  At the edge of Kilwinning the path once again turns and then enters the fabulous Eglinton Country Park.  As anyone who visits the park knows, there are numerous routes criss-crossing this large area of formal parkland, woodland and rough scrub / heath land and the New Town Trail takes a particularly good line through it. It emerges on the far side to rejoin the old railway line about a mile from our starting point.  We were back in the house on the dot of four o’clock …..five hours after setting out.

Wetlands on the River Garnock near Kilwinning

Wetlands near the River Garnock

Despite being a low level path around a new town, it makes for a really enjoyable short day and reminds you just how fine the countryside is around Irvine.  It’s sometimes very easy to forget what you have on your doorstep ……this really is well worth a try if you live in the area …..it would be very good on a bicycle too.

Eglinton Country Park Castle

The formal part of Eglinton Country Park

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‘Towards the Isle of Arran, winter’

316  'Towards the Isle of Arran, winter', Acrylic & Pastel, 2014, 76 x 23 cm

‘Towards the Isle of Arran, winter’

‘Towards the Isle of Arran, winter’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2014, 76 x 23 cm

I finished this painting about a month ago and yesterday my partner Anita put it into a frame.  It’s always good seeing something finally framed and up on the wall and I’m quite pleased with this piece.

I’ve been asked so many times over the years whether I’d painted the view across the water to Arran, but in the past had always been interested in view points that were up in the hills.  I finally gave in to demand and this is what I came up with.  It’s the kind of view I get when I look towards the Isle of Arran from the mouth of the River Irvine near to my studio ….but looking through my monocular.

As I say, the painting is now up on my studio wall and can be viewed any time I’m working there.  As it’s the 2014 Open Studio Ayrshire event this weekend (Sat / Sun 26 / 27th April) why not call in to see it as part of your studio trail this weekend?  There are 47 venues open throughout Ayrshire ….more details: www.openstudiosayrshire.com

A busy little week…

From above the Devils Staircase

From above the Devils Staircase

This time last week, (Saturday 14 at 13.17), Nita and I were sat with some friends Stewart and Evelyn on a rocky little top overlooking Glencoe.  We’d not walked far, just followed the West Highland Way up to the high point of the Devil’s Staircase and headed north up the grass and heather slopes to the first little summit at around 800m.  It was however a wonderful view point and we’d been very lucky with the weather.  It was I guess the perfect Glencoe weather …a mix of bright sun and dark heavy shower clouds that rolled in filling the glen with mist and rain before passing on over Rannoch Moor.  Stewart, an Irvine man, has been living in Germany with his wife Evelyn for many years and so I think he particularly enjoyed seeing this very special bit of Scotland in very special Scottish conditions.

City of Adelaide ....heading south

City of Adelaide ….heading south

The rest of my week was spent either at my studio or standing on the harbour side waiting to see if the grand old clipper, City of Adelaide would finally start her journey by barge down to London.  Getting this vast wooden ship on a barge out of the River Irvine needed a lot of skill, two tugs and some reasonably fine weather.  The latter was the problem for the first part of the week, with constant gales or at least high winds.  All looked good on Thursday morning and a big crowd once again gathered at the mouth of the River Irvine to witness this historical event but at the last minute with the wind picking up, the wise decision was made to once again call it off.  Finally, on Friday lunchtime, with the crowds once again lining the harbour side, the City of Adelaide was towed out to sea to start its trip down to London.  As I write, it’s now well into the Irish Sea apparently ….so good luck to all on board.  I’m not sure of the exact time table but it will be heading to Greenwich for a short while before being lifted onto a really big container ship for the long voyage down to Adelaide.  If you are interested and haven’t already found it, www.cityofadelaide.org.au is a great website and has masses of information and photos.

Art wise, it’s been a good week too.  I’ve had a week of working on an 80 x 80 cm oil painting.  It is as you can see, a more abstract piece created using a large house painting brush and lots of thick oil paint.  I’ve been enjoying working like this after several weeks of doing finer, tighter acrylic and pastel pieces.  Not sure what to make of it though ….so will have to wait and see.

Work in progress, oil on canvas 80 x 80 cm

Work in progress, oil on canvas 80 x 80 cm

Finally, yesterday I also had a visit from a couple from Edinburgh.  They’ve been following my work on-line for a good while now and decided to call into the studio on their way back from a short holiday on the Isle of Arran.  They left my studio an hour later with two of my paintings …..including one of the new Harris pieces.  So then …a very big thanks to them and I hope they get much pleasure from the paintings once they are up on their wall.

I’m spending today trying to get the press release and photos together to send to the local papers and radio stations in order to promote our Open Studios Weekend on Saturday 5th / Sunday 6th October.  The event posters and flyers have been printed and are starting to get displayed …if you live in the region you may see one soon.  I’ll be sending out flyers and email invitations to all who have left their names in my visitors book, but remember, the event is open to all and is free ….so mark it in your diary and come along and enjoy seeing a great selection of work produced by some of Ayrshire’s leading artists, including; painting, drawing, prints, ceramics, stained glass, hand book-binding, photography and jewellery….one of the artists, Alison Thomas, will even be running some drop-in workshops for children too.  Hope to see you at the studios on Saturday 5th October (11am – 5pm), or Sunday 6th October (12 noon – 5pm).

Invitation 2013

Invitation 2013

In need of a good wall!

As with last weeks, I’m once again using this blog to highlight a few of the paintings I currently have for sale at my studio.  My contact details are at the end of this blog ….please get in touch if you need any further information.

 

'From the studio, Irvine harbour side'

‘From the studio, Irvine harbour side’

‘From the studio,Irvine harbour side’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 122 x 61 cm
Catalogue number 196
Price: £1250 framed, £1125 unframed

About this painting
As the title says, this painting was based on the view from my studio window …or it was until I moved to my current space just over a year ago.  My old studio was in the old part of the Courtyard studios that face Harbour Stand across that, the River Irvine and the tidal saltings.  It was a great view and it changed constantly with the tide, light and weather.  This piece is a fairly large and abstract view of this scene.  I exhibited this painting in the large gallery at the  early this year and even though I say it myself, it looked great on the big wall.

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'On Beinn a' Ghlo, autumn'

‘On Beinn a’ Ghlo, autumn’

‘On Beinn a’ Ghlo, autumn’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2011, 80 x 80 cm
Catalogue number: 194
Price: £1095 framed, £985 unframed

 About this painting
This is another of the large and more abstract paintings ….this time based on a view we had while wandering the high broad ridges of Beinn a’ Ghlo near Blair Athol.  The hills are heather covered lower down but a mixture of course grass and rock on the upper slopes and ridges. It makes for spectacular walking especially on the kind of day we had ….one of dark heavy clouds just clearing the summits and breaks that created a patchwork of light, colour and shade across the hillside.  This painting has been painted with thick paint using a large old traditional horse hair house painting brush.  Once again it needs a reasonable space …it’s quite big, bright and bold, and certainly one of my favourites.

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 'A walk in the wild. above  Drumochter, winter'

‘A walk in the wild. above Drumochter, winter’

‘A walk in the wild.  above Drumochter, winter’, Oil on canvas, 2012, 80 x 80 cm
Catalogue number: 221
Price: £1035 framed, £985 unframed

About this painting
This was the first of my new oil paintings and was created earlier this year.  Once again it is erring towards the abstract but is based on a walk I did with my friend Guy in the hills to the east of Drumochter Pass a number of years ago.  The two Munro’s we walked over that day are really no more than slightly higher points set several miles apart on a huge area of wild moor-land.  Covered with a layer of soft snow it made for a very tiring walk.  Added to this, we were walking into a stiff and very cold east wind, and by the end of the day we were exhausted. It was certainly very memorable!  As with the other two paintings highlighted in this blog ..this painting appreciates a little space around it.

For more details about these three larger paintings or to arrange to view them at the studio, please contact me:

Tel: 07742 437425

Email: keith@keithsalmon.org or salmon21@freeuk.com

Studio E

 'My old studio ....newly occupied'

'My old studio ....newly occupied'

It has been just over four months since I moved out of Studio E and into the bigger space in Studio J.  As I’ve said previously, it has actually taken me quite a while to get used to it.  I’ve had to move everything around to find the best use of the space ….and then learn where everything is!  I’m getting there though and starting to really enjoy having enough room to work on both acrylic and oil paintings at the same time and I’m not constantly tripping over things either.   That said, I do miss my old studio.  Being in the old part of the building it had a lot more character than the new space.  Its high ceiling and the old window overlooking the River Irvine and the salting beyond, made it a special place to work.

After I moved out of Studio E in late September, it remained empty despite the fact that the rent was low and on our returning from Germany in the first week of November my partner Anita said that she was going to apply for the lease if no one else was going to take it on.

Anita and I met almost 25 years ago at a time when she had just completed her Foundation Art Course and was about to head down to Carmarthen College to do a two year ceramic design course.  When she completed this in 1989, I quit the job I was doing and moved down to west Wales to join her.  We managed to find a great little cottage to rent in the beautiful little village of Laugharne but then both really struggled to find work.  A series of short lived jobs, cooking bar food at a time share place for me, being a waitress in a local restaurant for Nita ….and cleaning caravans on a Saturday morning for both of us ….well, it wasn’t too inspiring.  I was painting and drawing in the cottage and Nita was making small pieces in clay and then smoke firing them in a dustbin full of saw dust out in the back garden.

 'My old studio ....newly occupied'

'My old studio ....newly occupied'

After about a year of this we took the plunge, found a studio (a converted pig sty two miles off the bus route on the side of a hill) and managed to get a grant to purchase a kiln and other equipment and materials …..and we became self employed.  We thought we could put Nita’s ceramic skills together with my more arty ones …and hopefully produce something good.  We were making ceramic jewellery that was just a little bit different …after firing them in a traditional kiln we then smoked them in the saw dust bin, leaving each individual item coloured and marked in a slightly different way.  Even though I say it myself, it was quite nice stuff but we didn’t have the money to promote or market it …and after a few years had to close and return to the more normal jobs …this time, garden centre for me, burger bar for Nita.

I was already struggling with my sight but continued to work at home on my drawing and painting.  Nita decided that she needed to retrain in a different profession and over the next few years qualified as a nurse.

Our move in 1998 from Wales to Scotland and to a slightly bigger house made a big difference.  At long last I had a decent space in which to paint and I was starting to regain confidence in what I was doing.  When I was offered a WASPS studio in 2003 though, this suddenly gave Nita the space to start doing some artwork again….and as time progressed she started to talk about getting another kiln and getting back to her ceramics again.  Just over a year ago, she decided to cut her hours at the hospital from full to part time (2 long twelve and a half hour shifts a week) and this allowed her to spend much more time doing her art work.  So then, the final piece fell into place when I moved studios back in October …now she not only had the time to get back to the ceramics but there was a perfect little studio just waiting to have a kiln fitted!

 'My old studio ....newly occupied'

'My old studio ....newly occupied'

This has I have to admit been a long and rambling way of telling you that today after all this time, Nita has not only got her studio but the kiln too …the electrician arrived this morning to wire it all in ….she’s up and running!  It’s nice for me to see the little studio again and it’s already looking busy …I’m looking forward to see what she makes now that she not only has the time but the resources too.

Finally, last week I said that I’d been asked to hang a few pieces of work in one of Ayrshire’s top restaurants ….Braidwoods Restaurant, near Dalry.  This award winning restaurant now has four of my paintings on its walls and Nicola and Keith Braidwood kindly sent me some photos of a couple of the paintings in situ.   You can find out more about Braidwoods Restaurant by visiting their website: www.braidwoods.co.uk .

Braidwoods

Braidwoods

Braidwoods

Braidwoods

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Dismantled crane ….a taste of things to come?

Irvine harbour side

Irvine harbour side

As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I work at the Courtyard Studios on the harbour side at Irvine. My space is in the old part of the building that faces the road, and across that, the river and saltings. Until three days ago, just 200 m up the road was an old crane, one of several that used to be used to load and unload vessels visiting Irvine. Even to an outsider like me, it seemed to be an important part of the harbour side, indeed of Irvine’s history …..It was definitely a local landmark and one that gave interest to this wonderful harbour side.

That was of course until three days ago….when it was dismantled and carted half a mile away to be placed in the yard of the Maritime Museum. For the last five or so years I guess, the old crane had not been maintained and the buffeting winter gales had taken their toll. Bits had blown off, the paintwork peeled and the jib was a mass of rust. It seems a shame that such an important part of the towns history and identity as a once important port, should be allowed to fall into disrepair. On hearing of the cranes demise, one of my colleagues visited the towns planning department and apparently the crane has been taken to the Maritime Museum and if funds become available it’ll be restored and a place found for it once again…..lets hope so. Of course, its removal has nothing to do with the planned redevelopment of the Harbour side area ……hmmmmm!

The crane, Irvine harbour side

The crane, Irvine harbour side

Today has been a beautiful day, bright sun and the first real heat of the year. We had thought about heading for a hill today but as we both have a lot of work on we decided to have a less tiring day. Instead, we walked from my studio, out to the sea and then along the beach all the way to Troon, several miles down the Ayrshire coast.

We started, of course, by looking at the space where the crane used to be ..nothing now but the old wooden jetty that similarly, seems to be falling into disrepair and has been fenced off for a good number of years. Will this too be removed at some stage? Just beyond this point the River Irvine meets the River Garnock and together they flow the last few hundred metres before entering the Firth of Clyde. They flow under the footbridge that was built at huge expense to get visitors over to the Big Idea …a science centre that was built to mark the millennium. Sadly, although it was apparently very good, it only lasted for a few years before closing and sitting empty ever since. The wonderful bridge (built to open and close to allow boats access to the harbour) was opened after the final visitor left and has remained so ever since. Let’s hope the new planned developments for the harbour side are going to be better thought out than this our local millennium white elephant.

Close up of the crane, Irvine harbour side

Close up of the crane, Irvine harbour side

Most of the area between the Courtyard studios and the sea is grass. It’s a large area containing a large pond, good quality footpaths and is a fine safe area for folk to come for a stroll, joggers to jog and kids to play …it’s an important recreational area for the town. Today with this warm weather, a lot of people had made their way to the harbour side, all enjoying the grassed areas, the fine views and the beach. The wild life too was out in force this morning with the Skylarks singing above the dunes and the saltings, Eider ducks floating just off of the beach, Oyster catchers and Curlews calling from the mud on the far side of the river.

Much of this area is due for development …housing, retail and commercial units apparently. And there was a big sign on the bridge that suggested development on the far side of the river too. If this takes place I wonder what will happen to the wildlife and whether this now quite peaceful area that pulls in visitors both local and from far afield, will lose the very thing that people come for.

 

The crane close up

The crane close up

People say that with the studios being right in the middle of the new development, that it’ll be good for business. Maybe, but as an artist I worry about what the developers have in mind. I very much doubt that it is going to be as peaceful, as beautiful or indeed as interesting as it is now. Is the missing crane just a taste of things to come? We’ll wait and see I guess. I hope in a few years I can write and say I was wrong.

Wide open spaces

In the studio

In the studio

For the first time since I moved into my present studio space …the walls are almost completely empty.  Usually I have paintings hanging on the biggest wall and there are always others propped against it too.  For a month now though I have the extra wall space as nearly all my work is out on exhibition.

I’ve wanted to get down to doing some slightly larger pieces for a long time and as soon as all the work was away, I bought myself four biggish boards and started working on them ….well, three of them to date.  These boards are all 122 x 61 cm and so make for quite a good sized painting …certainly larger than I normally work on.

For a long time now I’ve been rather tentatively using thicker paint.  I bought a selection of colours from the Liquitex range of super heavy bodied acrylic paint. It’s wonderful thick sticky stuff but for a long time I didn’t know what to do with it!  As I say, I was very tentative with my use of it at first but as time has gone by I’ve become somewhat bolder.  So then, these new larger paintings are my attempt to take this process further, to try and work with more and thicker paint, bigger bolder marks and in a slightly more abstract fashion.  As such I decided that seeing as I’m working on a different scale and in a slightly different way, I may as well paint a different subject too.

New painting - "Harbour side"

New painting - "Harbour side"

My studio as you know by now is situated on the harbour side at Irvine.  My front door and window look out across the road and quay to the River Irvine.  On the opposite side of the river is a huge area of saltings that lie between the Irvine and Garnock rivers.  The view from my studio window is constantly changing.  On the high tides the saltings can disappear completely beneath the water, wee outcrops and an odd bush being the only land above water.  Then gradually the land begins to appear, first in long strips and then quite rapidly to leave just pools of water before on really low tides, there being no water to see at all from my studio.  Add to this the constantly changing weather conditions and light …and great change in the colours due to the season and well, it’s quite an amazing place to work next to.

New painting - "Irvine Harbour side"

New painting - "Irvine Harbour side"

The new paintings then are based on this very simple but at the same time complex (does that make sense?) view.  I got thinking about this a few weeks ago when after a morning of heavy rain and dark brooding clouds, the conditions suddenly started to improve and small breaks appeared in the cloud allowing bursts of intensely bright light to fall through and onto areas of the saltings.  The colours were amazing.  The sky was a heavy dark purple grey blue and the far horizon a thin dark line.  The saltings though were an intense bright mass of yellows and then back to ochre’s, olive greens and umbers in the shadow in the foreground.  It was beautiful.  I thought about photographing it but realised that it probably wouldn’t capture much of this and so instead just grabbed my small digital voice recorder (used to record meetings, lists of things to do and what to buy on my next visit to Asda) and simply tried to describe what I could see …a sort of audio sketch.  The conditions, light and colours changed rapidly over the next hour and so I made four or five short recordings and decided to use these as the basis for my first couple of paintings.

I’d never really thought about using the voice recorder as a kind of sketch book before and it has been pleasing how well it’s working for me.  The first two paintings have developed quite well and I’m now starting on two others that are going to be about the view at or around high tide …and in different light….I’ve been making further recordings during the last few days while the high tides have coincided with the best daylight.   I’ve tried to use just my bigger brushes …a one and a half inch flat brush being the smallest and then working right up to my large old six inch bristle house painting brushes.  I have still drawn into these with pastel but this is quite limited and this just helps to create a nice balance of marks rather than being a main feature as in a lot of my previous paintings.  It really has been an interesting couple of weeks and at long last this is much more what I’ve wanted to do.

Work in progress - Studio E

Work in progress - Studio E

Of course having the funds to be able to purchase the materials (these paints are quite expensive …and a six inch house brush swallows a lot of paint) and being able to afford to spend time experimenting …is all down to the Jolomo Award.  Without it I’d be forced to keep producing smaller more sellable paintings rather than trying to develop new and better and perhaps more challenging work.  I was a lucky chap back in June 2009 when I won that award and its funding has supported me to this point and will probably do so for at least a couple of years more.  The 2011 Jolomo Awards are in progress now and so it’ll be great to see who eventually wins through when the awards are announced in June.  Who ever it is, they’ll certainly find it makes a huge difference to their career …it’s certainly made a huge change to my work as an artist.

Anyway, I’ve got until the 12th March before the show ends at the Strathearn Gallery and my studio gets some what more cluttered again.  That said, the gallery have sold a number of pieces to date so that has been very encouraging …and of course it means I’ll have to keep painting …I have a busy year ahead.   There should be a list on my website shortly, giving details of forthcoming exhibitions throughout 2011.