Painting with Sound exhibition, Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine
The final configuration of the visual and audio elements, using QR codes to give a very immersive experience, proved very successful and I will now be looking for venues in which to exhibit and sell this kind of innovative landscape work. Watch this space!
Painting with Sound exhibition, Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine
Of course, this audio-visual work has taken a huge amount of time to develop and even doing the large 120 x 120 cm oil paintings has been very time consuming, with each one of the 11 such pieces in the recent show taking anywhere between two and four months to complete……and that doesn’t include all the hours Graham and I have put into creating the soundscapes. As such I have done almost none of the smaller acrylic and pastel paintings for which I became known and which sold well enough to pay for the upkeep of my studio over the years.
I have therefore decided to get back to painting some of these smaller pieces and now have three new 76 x 23 cm acrylic and pastel paintings completed:
478 ‘Towards Glen Sannox, Isle of Arran’
479 ‘A passing view from near Crianlarich, January’
480 ‘An afternoon in December, Creag Meagaidh’
Something completely new
In the past I have only ever used oil for the larger paintings but have really enjoyed building the oil colour for these in thick layers. I have decided to try and do this on a much smaller scale, creating small, (20 x 20 cm) semi abstract landscapes in thick choppy oil paint. I have been doing these small pieces quite quickly in just one or two sessions. I’m quite pleased with them as they are a nice cross between the smaller acrylic & pastel paintings I have done in the past and the more recent larger oil pieces. Here are images of several of these new pieces, I hope that you like them:
463 ‘Luss Hills sketch, early winter’
473 ‘An early winter afternoon, Glen Lyon’
474 ‘In the Drumochter Hills, early spring’
475 ‘In the mountains above Glen Shiel, winter’
476 ‘Above Glen Ogle, Febraury’
Finally, if you run a gallery and would like to exhibit and sell some of my work, please don’t hesitate to contact me: Email: keith@keithsalmon.org or Tel: 07568 380552
So of course, everything is very different right now. No longer the casual routine of going down to my studio most days and heading to the hills two or three times a month. Instead, like most folk I guess, I’ve been working from home ….or trying to at least and we haven’t walked further than a few miles from our house.
Prior to the pandemic, Nita and I had already made some big changes with regards our studios. As anyone who has visited my studio will know, for the last few years I’ve been renting an individual unit comprising a large space downstairs and a small space upstairs. This has allowed me to do all my painting work as well as the audio stuff too. It’s been important to be able to play the audio without it affecting another artist. At the same time, Nita (who makes ceramics) was renting a separate small studio in the old part of the Courtyard Studio buildings. With the studio rents increasing significantly over the last few years and my sales sadly falling over the corresponding time, we decided that we should perhaps down size a little. After much thought, we decided that the best way to go about this was for me to give up my small upstairs studio and for Nita to move into it ….giving up her own space in the process. It meant moving a lot of my older work to the house, along with Nita’s kiln, which wouldn’t have been safe alongside all my paints. We spoke to WASPS and they were happy for us to make this move as there were plenty of people on the Courtyard Studios waiting list and we started moving all the gear back before Christmas. It took a lot longer than we originally thought but we had everything done by February and we were just starting to get things sorted …..when the virus changed everything. At least we got all our gear moved before the lock-down and so when we can get back in, we can just start working.
‘Canisp, a winter afternoon’
A Busman’s Holiday
We didn’t of course, get away for our annual two weeks of walking and relaxing in North West Scotland this May, but did manage to get away for two weeks back in December and so as things have turned out, it was a very good move. Instead of heading up to Assynt and Sutherland as we do in May, we decided to visit a couple of areas a little further south that in the past we had only ever driven through. Our first week was spent staying in Taynuilt, a few miles from Oban. The days involved dodging the rain, visiting numerous cafes and bars and grabbing short walks down to the shores of Loch Etive. I made several lengthy sound recordings close to the point where the old ferry used to cross the narrow section of the loch. It was an interesting mix of sounds, both natural and man-made. Although it was a beautiful location, we were only about a mile from the main road and railway to Oban. Add to this the day to day noises coming from the village and the small airport a few miles away to the west and it made for very different recordings. That said, the overall feel, despite these human intrusions, is still quite wild with the sounds of the huge sea loch, its accompanying wildlife and the general sense of space all around.
‘Towards the Bridge of Orchy Hills from Ghlas Bheinne’
We moved a little further north for our second week and stayed in a lodge several miles from Fort William and close to the Caledonian Canal. Whereas the first week was very much holiday, the next 7 days were more about work. Prior to coming away, I’d been contacted by a small TV production company. They had been commissioned to make an hour long documentary about how artists with different kinds of sight, perceive their surroundings and go about their work. They had heard about the new audio visual work I have been doing with Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland and asked if they could include a small piece about this work. In short, it was agreed that they would travel north and meet us on the final day of our holiday so that they could get some film of us walking in the landscape and me making recordings. They would then travel back to Irvine on the Saturday and meet me at my studio to record a short interview.
Filming near Loch Lochy, Scotland
Of course, as we were staying in an area we didn’t really know, we had to spend our time trying to find a suitable location for them to film. It had to be somewhere that would make sense with the work I was doing and be somewhere that was easily accessible for people carrying heavy film and recording gear. As it turned out we actually found the perfect spot on our second day out. It was a section of the Great Glen Way as it winds its way along the western shores of Loch Lochy. It was perfect with the sounds of the loch, numerous busy streams and the regular call of birds ….and very little manmade noise. I actually made five recordings and worked out plans for several paintings by the end of the walk and so it was time well spent. Everything went well on the Friday and the small team got their film without any rain. We did the interview at the studio on the Sunday morning and they were back down in London by the evening. They said they thought the programme wouldn’t be broadcast until the end of the year and so I’ll have to wait some more before finding out whether I made a complete tit of myself!
Recording interview in my studio.
The walk along Loch Lochy was really important as it turned out because it gave me new material to work on during the lockdown. I’ve actually been working on three 80 x 80cm canvases since I brought my painting stuff home back in early March. Each painting is based on one of the slightly different recordings I made as we walked along the side of Loch Lochy back on December 9th. Each one was recorded at a different time of day, morning, midday and late afternoon. They aren’t finished yet but they are close I think.
Loch Lochy painting 2 , work in progress
Exhibitions – New Dates
As you may know, our first big audio visual piece, called the Kylesku Project, is now finished. See excerpts from the digital version:
https://youtu.be/4kBVUsDuDww
Kylesku project – Keith Salmon, Graham Byron and Drew Kirkland
We had arranged to exhibit it at a venue in Lochinver in Assynt this summer, but this has had to be postponed due to the pandemic and we are now planning to hold the exhibition in May 2021. Sadly we’ve recently also heard that the Courtyard Studios annual Group Exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre has had to be cancelled this year too. That all said, we are still on for an exhibition at the Barony Centre in West Kilbride in March 2021. We’ll be showing the full Kylesku Project for the first time along with a new video work and a selection of my recent paintings and drawings. I am also hoping to do another ‘Big drawing’, along the lines of the big Glen Rosa drawing and so there should be plenty to see and hear. The Barony Centre, being in a big old church, is probably the perfect venue in which to hold an exhibition during times of social distancing ….lots of space!
‘Towards Beinn Leoid, Sutherland’
Still Open For Business
Finally, I just wanted to say that I am still open for business even if I’m not currently at the studio. If you see and are interested in any work here on the website, just email or phone me and we can work something out. Stay safe and I look forward to inviting you back to the studio before too long ……even if it is one at a time!!!
The paintings included with this blog are all currently available and were created between 2018 and 2020.
‘Squall, on the edge of Rannoch Moor’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2015, 30 x 30 cm, RP £675
This is one of my latest 30 x 30 cm acrylic and pastel paintings. I had it framed recently and it’s now on the wall in my studio. I have to say that I’m quite pleased with this piece as it captures well the memories I have of the very showery spring day we had the other year walking near the edge of Rannoch Moor. It was a day of bright sun and beautiful colours ….followed by dark skies and a soaking! It certainly made for dramatic views…. I must get back there again soon.
This painting will remain in my studio for the next couple of weeks and will then probably be included in the selection of the 10 pieces I’ll be taking to the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle upon Tyne for their Winter Exhibition. More information about this exhibition shortly.
‘Towards the Blackmount, winter’, Oil on canvas, 2014, 120 x 120 cm
It has been such a busy year that I’ve only just got back to working on another large scale painting. This piece was the last big canvas I did, completing it in the autumn last year. The painting, done in thick over-lapping brush strokes in traditional oil colour, is based on views we’ve seen while walking the hills around Blackmount. On this scale the painting tends towards the abstract but hopefully conveys much of the drama, colour and atmosphere of this Wild Mountain and moor-land landscape.
This painting is currently stored at my studio and can be viewed on request. Visitors are always welcome.
The title for this blog probably breaks most if not all of the trades description act for as most of you know, I don’t actually dash anywhere, especially when I’m on a hill! That said however, our trip to Beinn Ime yesterday was in a sense, a bit of a dash as up until mid afternoon the day before, we had no intention of going walking. The forecasts seemed to have been suggesting wet and very windy weather for Thursday but when Nita double checked early Wednesday evening…. it seemed like the rain wouldn’t actually arrive until the end of the day.
Not wanting a silly early start as Nita had been working a night shift on Tuesday and didn’t get much in the way of sleep on Wednesday, we opted for going for a walk in the Arrochar Alps ….not much more than an hour and a half drive from Irvine. The forecast had actually suggested there would be 90% chances of a cloud free Munro, but when we reached the side of Loch Lomond at just after 9am, everything was dark and gloomy with heavy banks of cloud shrouding all the hills above about 500 metres. I have to say we weren’t at the time too happy with Geoff Monk at MWIS….. but we should have known better as, given another hour and the tops where clear. And we used that hour by stopping at Luss and treating ourselves to a bacon roll and a cuppa ….so not bad after all! My apologies to Geoff and his team at MWIS for ever doubting them!
The Cobbler
Our target for the day was Beinn Ime, a hill we’d first climbed back in 1998 and one we’d revisited on five or six other occasions over the years. It makes for a very pleasant wander through spectacular scenery and as you start at sea level and end up at just over 1000 m ….it gives your legs a good stretch. We haven’t actually walked the path up past The Cobbler and Beinn Narnain to Beinn Ime for probably four years and it was amazing to see how much the lower sections of the path had changed in this time. What had been saplings have grown and the big views you used to have out over Loch Long, have for the most part, been hidden behind foliage. What you lose on the bigger scale however, you make up on the smaller scale. Numerous wild flowers decorated the sides of the path almost all the way up to the edge of the forestry and from that point the views of The Cobbler and Beinn Narnain grab your attention. The path itself has eroded quite badly in places despite it only being a little over 10 years old I think. The top surface seems to have been washed away in places but it still makes a pretty easy way to gain height and get up into these spectacular mountains.
The Cobbler from the upper slopes of Beinn Ime
I had expected the path to be quite busy at this time of year but in fact we only saw a few other folk throughout the day and the busiest spot was actually the summit of Beinn Ime itself. Even so, there was only a few folk and they soon headed off back down and Nita and I had this lofty quiet spot to ourselves …… with the exception of one lone sheep and a couple of Ravens. It had taken us about four and a quarter hours to the top and so we had plenty of time to sit and enjoy the views which, despite the generally grey skies, were pretty extensive. Nita could make out Ben Nevis to the north but it still had its head in the cloud. Most of the rest of the hills were clear just as MWIS had forecast.
At the summit of Beinn Ime
Our return back down to the car was in increasingly gloomy light but the rain held off and I have to admit that I felt quite smug…. our lazy start and second breakfast in Luss paid off…. cloud free tops by the time we started walking and still dry eight and a half hours later on our return to the car. A perfect day in the hills.
‘From Conival, May’ Acrylic & Pastel, 2013, 40 x 40 cm
Current RP £720,
Price as from 1st September 2015, £1008
I know that I’ve used this painting as my artwork of the week before, but I just had to put it on again as just last Thursday we were stood near the top of this big rocky lump of a mountain that sits to the side of Conival in Assynt. I first saw this hill as we climbed Conival back in May 2006. It had large areas of snow on its north east facing slopes and it looked stunning. So much so that, over the intervening years I’ve created five different paintings of it. This is my favourite I think. On Thursday we reached it just as the weather was turning bad but were lucky enough to get some fine views across to Conival and Ben More Assynt before the rain started. It’s a very wild landscape up there with masses of boulder fields that make walking in a straight line very difficult. There are plenty of grassy, mossy leads though so you rarely have to take to the boulders. Anyway, the painting is currently showing in my studio should you like to come and see it for real.
Sorry, no blog this week. We’re away up in Assynt and I’ll be writing about the trip next week. In the meantime, here are a couple of snaps taken on a wild walk on Canisp.
Suilven from the slopes of Canisp
From Canisp, a bit of a rainbow during a hail shower
‘Below Cul Mor, Assynt’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2008, 80 x 110 cm
I’ll be heading off up to the northwest of Scotland again shortly, to do a bit more walking and drawing. I’m not quite sure which hills we’ll be heading for but I’m sure which ever ones we go to, we’ll get some stunning views.
I did this painting several years ago after our first visit to Cul Mor. The painting is quite large and was one of my first attempts to develop the range of marks I used. As such, it is quite a bold piece but one that I’ve always been very pleased with. The painting is still available so if you fancy seeing it any time and can get to the studio, just let me know and I’ll make sure it’s there when you visit.
Meeting our friend Neil in Fife at 08.00, for a walk in the Lomond Hills, meant an early start. Indeed, it meant the alarm clock went off at half past four in the morning! When I got downstairs and opened the back door to let the cat out, I was disappointed to find that it was raining hard and unlike us, the cat decided it wasn’t a day for venturing out! The forecast had, I thought, indicated a dry start with the rain developing as the day progressed ….it looked like the forecast might be back to front.
Nita and I in the rain at the Bonnet Stone
The rain fell all the way over to Fife and when we started the walk at a point below West Lomond, the hill was well shrouded in mist. But, the Lomond Hills aren’t just about big views from the top. Neil had already told us that these small hills had some really interesting features and he had planned a route to take us past some of them.
The first, which I think is called the Bonnet Stone, is a crazy natural sandstone sculpture that sits low down amidst grassy fields full of sheep and their lambs. From a distance I found it difficult to judge just how big or small the outcrop was, but my jaw started to drop as we got closer and I realised that this was a very big sandstone outcrop indeed. The actual Bonnet Stone looked a bit like a very large mushroom and apparently it is possible to clamber up onto it, but I gave that a miss and made do with standing on another lump of the huge outcrop. Neil had told us we’d visit three caves on the walk and tucked underneath us was one of them. It was a perfect place to get out of the rain for a late breakfast!
Nita and Neil at the summit of Bishop’s Hill
The haul up to the summit of West Lomond was pretty steep and we were soon into the cloud and, as we got higher, the wind. The summit wasn’t really a place to stop for long and a quick couple of snaps later saw us heading off down hill, with the wind and driving rain at our backs. It was an equally steep descent but on easy grass and as we emerged from below the cloud we could make out some breaks in the weather off in the distance.
On the side of bishop’s Hill
Neil’s plan was to head over to the summit of Bishop’s Hill and then back down to the col before returning to the car via a fabulous glen carved out through the sandstone by a small stream. The breaks we had seen in the distance did tell of better conditions and as the rain stopped the cloud level lifted and we got our first views of West Lomond…. a large lump of a hill that might make for an interesting drawing or painting. In other directions we could see Loch Leven, East Lomond and further away, the Bass Rock. We had a longer stop at the summit of Bishop’s Hill before doing a small detour to see a very impressive pinnacle that stands as part of the craggy side of the hill.
West Lomond from the col
The walk back through the sandstone carved glen was equally impressive and a detour took us up to an elegant waterfall and a couple more caves. This time we didn’t need their shelter though and a late lunch by the side of the small stream saw us sitting in the sunshine for a few minutes.
The perfect lunch spot
This really was a fine walk and this is an area I’d like to return to in slightly better weather. Our walk ended with a visit to Neil’s parents who live close by and who made us very welcome and treated us to a fine meal before we headed back to the wet west! Many thanks to them for the fabulous Fife hospitality and to Neil for taking us on such a fine walk through his local hills. It’s always great going somewhere you’ve never visited before.
‘Early evening, below Canisp’, Acrylic & Pastel, 2014, 30 x 30 cm
We’ve been looking for places to stay for our walking holiday this year. Still very drawn to Assynt although whether we’ll be able to find anywhere to stay at this late stage is debatable ….we left it a little late for booking anywhere. I guess it might have to be the tent this year! Fingers crossed for extra good weather!
If we do get up to Assynt, I’m hoping to get back to the summit of Canisp again. Nita and I climbed it several years ago on a beautiful fine spring day. The views from the summit were amazing. We stopped for a rest at a small loch tucked down underneath the main bulk of the hill on our way down and this little painting is about that time and place. It’s very very peaceful and as it is off the main track by some way ….it felt quite remote and quiet. This painting is currently hanging in my studio if you’d like to see it up close.
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