Meet the Paintings - Gathering Clouds over Farm, Glenlivet

Despite the ominous title, “Gathering Clouds over Farm, Glenlivet” has lovely rich colours of reds and russets which contrast with the cooler turquoises and greens of the hills.  It’s a painting of contrasts, with the bright and dark clouds bringing their mixture of sunshine and showers.

Here's the actual photo that I did the painting from.

As usual, I’ve put a link at the bottom so you can see the actual place and explore the area.  The actual location is on the Old Military Road (A939) just before you come into Tomintoul.  

For a few years, I was lucky enough to be able to stay regularly at a friend’s cottage at Clashnoir at the Braes of Glenlivet, which is near Tomintoul, in the whisky making area of Glenlivet and Knockando.  This was painted near there. 

Being able to stay at various times throughout the year, including during the famous traditional Tomintoul Highland Games, meant that I was able to see the same area in different seasons, and observe how the landscape changed.

 Here’s the Google Maps link: location for 'Gathering Clouds'

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.

Meet the Paintings - Field of Poppies and Thistles

Here is ‘Field of Poppies and Thistles’, another little one.  This was painted at Longniddry, on the east coast of Scotland near North Berwick, where there is always the most amazing displays of poppies in the fields and at the sides of the road in early summer.

Here’s the photo that I took in the field at Longniddry Farm, and that I used for the painting.

I did a whole series of paintings based on the wonderful poppies in that field, including this one of the track leading along to the farm.  Poppies are wonderful to paint, especially in oils, as not only are they such a amazing pop of colour (in pure vermillion, or mixed with a little cadmium yellow deep), but their shape makes them perfect for a lovely juicy curve of paint on the canvas.

But unfortunately, this beautiful field of poppies no longer exists.  Sadly, here’s a photo of the field from a few weeks ago – a field of mud.  It’s now a construction site, as it is being turned into a housing estate.  So my paintings are the last record of how the field used to look.  

You can take a look at the area in its pre-housing state here Longniddry Farm.

Meet the Paintings - Farm and Autumn Fields

Today, it’s a large paintings for a change, “Farm and Autumn Fields”.  It’s 24 x 40”, so there’s quite a nice area of canvas for some broad mark-making. 

My previous paintings have all been about getting to know an area really well, so that you know individual plants throughout the seasons, and lining up the photographs absolutely exactly.  The antithesis to this process is quickly taking photos as you pass by on a journey.

When I go to take photos, the parts in between the locations are often as interesting as the locations themselves.  It’s just that you can’t stop, especially on a fast road, or on a train.  It’s difficult to switch off if you’re a passenger., as you are constantly looking, looking, looking, and seeing the composition, watching for all the elements to line up.  It’s impossible to look out of a window at a passing landscape , and the clouds and the changing light, and the undulating furrows in the earth and the patterns of the haybales, and not be in work mode.

So this painting was done from one of these very, very quick glimpses.  If it’s a road that I travel on a lot, then I’ll often know when to look out for a particular point in the road.  I then have to press the shutter on the camera before the elements all line up, so that hopefully I take the actual composition that I want.

Of course, there’s a big element of chance in it, and it’s just a question of opportunistically grabbing what I can see, of note-taking.  I have lots of photos of trees which unexpectedly jump out in front of the camera!

But it’s ok if something is a little blurred or not quite where I would wish it – that’s the nature of the fleeting glimpse., the moment that’s there and then gone so suddenly and that only I have see thorough the camera.  It’s a hugely personal, temporal moment.  So it’s about embracing it and taking what it gives you, which includes all its imperfections and chance elements.

Meet the Paintings - Evening Clouds, the Summer Isles

Meet the Paintings Day 4 - today it's 'Evening Clouds, the Summer Isles".

Here's the painting, plus a couple showing it in its frame.

This was painted when I was travelling the North Coast 500 route round the north of Scotland.  Travelling the winding single-track roads of the route is an amazing experience, but is quite weather-dependent.  And unfortuantely, the weather had been shocking up until I got to Ullapool, nothing but mist and rain - I couldn't see any landscape at all worth painting, and certainly none of the famous mountains.  Where were they?

Then, travelling one evening from Ullapool to Achiltibuie where I was staying, the most lifted and I was treated to the most amazing sunset.  Suddenly, the landscape appeared in a fiery blaze, with the most astonishing, almost primeval mountains rising up as if by magic.  Stac Pollaidh looked like Gandalf's hat!

I was able to look out of the window at any time during the night, and see the Summer Isles in a soft glow, as it never really got dark, known as the 'Simmer Dim'.  And who would want to be able to look out at something called 'The Summer Isles'?  It's like something out of Narnia.

Here are some of the photos I took on that trip from Ullapool to Achiltibuie with the sun setting along the way, plus another couple of paintings that I did based on that journey.

Please feel free to drop me a line if you;d like to ask anything about this or any other paintings that I have featured on the blog.

As usual, here the Google Maps reference for you to explore and compare to my painting.

The Summer Isles on Google Maps