Borders Landscapes

Last weekend I visited the Scottish Borders town of Biggar and managed to get out to do some sketching. This time, however, I also took with me some acrylics paint:

Borders Landscape Study #1. mixed media in sketchbook, A4.

Borders Landscape Study #2. mixed media in sketchbook, A4.

Borders Landscape Study #3. mixed media in sketchbook, 2x19x25cm.

 

Borders Landscape Study #4. mixed media in sketchbook, A4.

 

Borders Landscape Study #5. mixed media in sketchbook, A4.

 

Borders Landscape Study #6. mixed media in sketchbook, 2x19x25cm.

Borders Landscape Study #7. mixed media in sketchbook, A4.

There were a few others that didn't quite work out but the important thing was I learned a lot about working with acrylics in the field such as: you need to carry a lot more water for brush cleaning therefore you can't stray too far from the car. Fortunately there was often small streams close-by and that tickles me to think that local water was directly used in the making of these studies.

Secondly: it's a good idea to limit your palette and not carry too many tubes of paint. They are heavy therefore, again, don't stray too far from the car.

For all they say that acrylics dry fast they don't really dry fast enough especially out in the open. The benefit of this, however, is you get to sit and ponder Lifes' cruelties and beauties - crows mobbing a buzzard, a long-legged hare loping across a field, a dead fox, rooks returning to their rookery for the evening, inquisitive lambs interested in what I was doing in their field, a fish rising. At least I didn't come home with any tics on me.

The one big issue which applies whichever medium you use is trying to find a suitable place to park your car. It is ok, I think, to park in front of a farmers gate but only if you stay there ready to move if needs be. Otherwise there aren't too many legitimate parking lay-bys or roads wide enough, and verges solid enough to take a car.

Another thing I learned (to my great embarassment and discomfort) was not ever again to lean back so hard on my wee aluminium fold-away seat with the fabric back support - it ripped and I fell back with my legs up in the air. My darling wife has sewn it back together again - with pink thread!



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.

Drumadoon

THE DOON FROM THE EAST: pencil on paper, A5 sketchbook. This rock stands proud on a promontary on the west coast of Arran near Blackwaterfoot. The approach passes one of the best golf courses I have ever played, certainly the most entertaining - Shiskine - a 12 hole gem with all sorts of flags and indicators to show when a green is clear to play to because most of them are blind! The scenery and views around this course are magnificent, especially on a nice day (of course!). On the other side of the Doon is rolling farmland with buzzards hovering above. You follow the fence-line towards the lower end and then climb a not-so-gentle slope to the top where the panoramic views back over Blackwaterfoot, south down the Kilbrannan Sound towards Ireland, west across to the Mull of Kintyre, and north up the Sound, are absolutely stunning. This was one of the first sketches I made on my first day in order to get myself going and make some marks in my sketchbook. I then climbed the hill to have a look at it's standing stone and visible remains of a small settlement. The day was so nice that I spent a while just sitting, contemplating, while looking out over the water (searching for whales or dolphins, without any luck!) THE DOON FROM THE WEST: pencil on paper, A5 sketchbook. This western side of the Doon is very dramatic with it's vertical cliff-face, home to a large group of crows and jackdaws which rise up in a wild bunch calling out their raucous presence for me to hear.

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

Amazing Sunsets over Kintyre

Sunset 1: Neocolour on paper, A5 sketchbook. These two colour studies were an attempt to describe the way I felt about the sunsets rather than exact representations of what was happening before my eyes. I wanted to capture an expression of the high intensity and blinding colour as the sun sank gloriously below the hills across Kilbrannan Sound.
Sunset 2: The suns glaring intensity prohibits actually looking directly at it and in looking away with semi-closed eyes the blinding yellow light takes on it's complementary cerulean blue.

Shastas End

Acrylics on paper, 43x59cm.
Painted all day without getting anywhere near what I was looking for or how I was feeling. Made numerous attempts ranging from the figurative to the pure imaginative but always felt let down. My inspiration finally came as I surveyed the garden with many of my perenials at their end and looking well past the time when I should cut them to the ground. These Shatas in particular are long past their best and desperately need to be cut down, but something about them has prvented me from doing this. The dark reddish brown seed heads teetering on the end of long stems against a dark background look the epitome of autumn in preparation of winter. This gets to my core today. This says how I feel.

Torrance Linn

acrylics on board, 30x25cm.
Went for a walk this afternoon during a brief dry spell through the Calderglen Country Park and the Rotten Calder was in spate after yesterdays downpour. It reminded me of this small acrylic painting I did a few years ago which portrays the peaty orang/brown water as it cascades over the 'Linn'. The tree trunk is still there albeit reduced in length due to many storms. I was pleased with the way I managed to express the turmoil of the water as it bubbles and foams below the waterfall.

Mountains

Speicein Coinnich, Beinn Tarsuinn, and Sgurr An Fhidhieir, towering above Lochan Dhubha.
Acrylics on paper, 59x43cm.