Glen Sannox

Ever true to my word today I am posting three sketches from my Arran sketching trip when I took to the hills and glens laden down with my usual drawing paraphenalia - a clutch of felt-pens, a poly bag of Neocolour II's, sketchpad (which is now nearing it's end), and my little aluminium fold-away chair draped around my neck for the hike up into these hills:

"Ceum-na-Caillich & Suidhe Fhearghas", mixed media, 2x19x25cm.

"Cioch-na-h-Oighe", mixed media, 2x19x25cm.

"Lower Slopes, Cioch-na-h-Oighe", mixed media, 2x19x25cm.



I love place-names, and I especially love these gaelic place-names, the way they appear in written form but totally unpronouncable by this lowland chantie-wrastling churl.

I think the high altitude musta gone fur ma heid!

ps: Thanks to Sheila I have indeed listened (with my good ear) and uploaded full resolution pics since she apparently is hauf blind without her glasses. I trust it is worth it?

April Sketching Trip

Right, where was I?

Ah yes, I remember - Arran, in April, just after the terrible snows that brought the island to a standstill.

But by the time we went over for one week the snow had mostly melted away although it was still bitterly cold. Not ideal for an outdoor sketching trip you might think, and you would be right and wrong all at the same time for it was as beautiful a week as we have ever had with bright blue skies and no rain. There I've said it: NO RAIN!

First day out sketching we went over to the other side of the island to Blackwaterfoot to Drumadoon Bay and this great lump of a hill which I have sketched many times before:

"The Doon", Mixed Media in Sketchbook, 2x19x25cm.

My intention was to continue with this style of sketching which I have become very comfortable with - starting with felt-tip pens to immediatley establish a strong colour, then working up with Neocolour II's to provide local colour notes. Hopefully this will be enough for me to develop a larger painting back home in the studio when the weather is dreich.

My second sketch of that day was this double-spread overlooking the small but perfectly formed harbour at Blackwaterfoot, just fifty metres from the Kinloch Hotel where a nice hot meal awaited me at the end of a very pleasurable day:

"The Harbour", Mixed Media in Sketchbook, 2x19x25cm.

I can see both these sketches being developed into larger paintings sometime in the future once I get some time off from all the other things in my life that demands my attention like a programme of major house refurbishment just completed and pram-pushing my new little grand-daughter, Amy.

More from Arran soon.



Coire Fhionn Lochann

COIRE FHIONN LOCHAN: pencil on paper, A5 sketchbook. This small lochan, cupped in a bowl below craggy mountain-tops, was the reward for an arduous climb. A dark shadow from one of the peaks cuts right across the surrounding hillside, and the water lies still in parts with a slight ripple in others, reflecting the blue sky between towering cloud formations.
This was probably one of the hardest climbs I have ever made. Rarely venturing above the tree-line I started on this climb thinking it was only a couple of miles like the sign-post said. What it didn't say was that it was also about a mile vertical! Here I am at just about the top looking back over the Kilbrannan Sound to Kintyre, and you can just faintly see, over my right shoulder, the Papps of Jura!

Dougarie Point

DOUGARIE POINT, MACHRIE BAY: I like to visit this corner of Arran every time I visit. It is quite wild and has a small beach that I like to sit at, eat my lunch perhaps, and do a little daydreaming. I can watch Grey Seals in the water and Peregrine Falcons zipping around the cliff-faces. This little sketch was done in an A5 sketchpad with Neocolours and I can vouch for the intensity of the water because it was a beautiful sunny afternoon with a cloudless sky.
This sketch was also done in an A5 sketchbook and was an attempt to express in colour the waves crashing into a small gully instead of merely rendering the scene realistically.

Standing Stones

Auchengallon Stone Circle. All over the Island of Arran there are the remains of human activity from thousands of years ago. They can mostly be found to the west around Drumadoon and Machrie Moor, but also in the very south of the island at Torrylin (see below). I find these sites fascinating and like to run my hand over the stones that ancient peoples put so much effort into raising from the beaches to, usually, high vantage points. Many of these circles are burial chambers, like Torrylin, but also they mark the sites of habitation.
Torrylin Chambered Cairn, Kilmory. This is to the south of the island and stands high on a promentory overlooking the Firth of Clyde as it stretches south towards Ailsa Craig and the the Irish Sea