Over the Sea to Skye

This blog is in grave danger of becoming inert and as unchanging as my socks, stuck in aspic you might say, and in need of a bloody great shove to overcome the inertia that has become as negligently pervasive as the space between my ears.

So in order to counteract that freefall I offer these small delights to keep y’all from pining and nodding off:

A short while ago my darling wife and I set off on the Road to the Isles (with the far Cuillins calling us away…anybody know that song: "Oh, The far cuillins are calling me away as step I with my crummock to the road…" fills yer hert wi joy! [don‘t know whit a crummock is so don‘t ask) to sample some unpolluted air and paddle a while in the ice-cold briney oceans around the dead romantic Hebridean island of Skye. The good news is that we no longer had to take a ferry-boat like some latter-day Flora McDonald and Prince Charlie(me being Charlie, of course) since they built the Skye Bridge - a big lump o’ a thing that flies you over from the Kyles of Lochalsh to land on the island without getting your feet wet.

A wonderful place on this earth. And peaceful too…ahh, I can still smell the tangle o’ the isles as I fondly reminisce.

Very little actual sketching done with so much grandeur on every side - endless seascapes to the horizon and atmospheric skies, rugged mountains and peaceful bays, lots of sheep and heilan’ coos, nae midges (too late in the season), and some excellent music at night in the Isles Bar.

Here is the sum total of my efforts, including one painting that sprung from my memories of a very special island:

Loch Leathan (the skinny bit between the hills in the distance and the scrub in the foreground), felt pen on paper, A4.

"Heartland", a husband and wife duo in the Isles Bar, pencil on paper, A5.

I liked the way this ended up with the girl flying over her husbands head like a pair of Chagall lovers.

"Kate on the Fiddle" pencil on paper, A5.

"Da Ferry Reel", pencil on paper, A5

Makes you want to get up and dance, especially wi' a few pints in ye!

Sgeir nan S'dhean (Waterstein Head), felt pen on paper, A4x2.

So windy at this most westerly point my bunnet and my rug nearly blew away!

"Beinn Bhreac and Loch Bay", felt pen on paper, A4x2.

The dark clouds gathered and heavy slanting rain rushed across the bay just to make me feel alive.

And from some of these sketches came this response:

"Red Headland and Dark Cloud", acrylics on hardboard, 45x61cm.

I hope you all have had as good a summer's break as I have and are cooking up your own storms!