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!



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!

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.