Meet the Paintings - Foxgloves, Looking Towards the Campsies

Back to the Campsies, and another little painting.  This is ‘Foxgloves, Looking Towards the Campsies.’  This was done on the same spot as the ‘Dog Roses’ painting, on the edge of Mugdock Country Park (Mugdock Country Park website here)

It’s another little jewel, only six inches square.  On something that concise, you have to decide which marks to make, and then just make them, as you are limited to how many gestural marks you can make on that small a surface, and how much detail you can put in.  It’s pared back , but that’s a nice thing to discipline yourself with.

This is a painting that is all about the punchy pinky-purple of the foxgloves, and the contrast of the acidic yellowy-green of the grass, and it has a beautiful hand-gilded white gold frame to show these colours and textures off to their best.

This is the photo that the painting was done from.

I’ve included a set of photos taken over a 15 year period, all taken at different times of the year and documenting the changing seasons.  I have others taken from years before that which are on film, and which show some truly shocking weather conditions, including snow, sleet, rain and mist.  I still did paintings from them though!  I even went scrambling through a quarry with my baby son strapped to my front to take photos…

 I’ve also included some of my earliest painting of the Campsies, when thing were a bit more blocky and abstract, right through to some of my most recent, so they cover a near 30 year period. 

 Explore the place where the paintings were made on Google Maps here.