Highland Fling

Jimmy Watts Cottage  Oils on canvas panel 10x8"

I have put my favourite up first, despite it being the last painted of the trip.  Perhaps I was better practised by then, but as often happens it was dashed off in double quick time at the end of a good day.

I have been to the Scottish Highlands for a week with a couple of girlfriends specifically to paint.  No cooking, no housework, nothing else to think about other than where we were going to paint for the day.  And what a lot of choice we had.  We were on the Sound of Sleet, overlooking the Isle of Skye, at a tiny, isolated village called Glenelg.

The weather wasn't brilliant to start with.  You can see how the weather improved through the week by looking at the colour of the skies.

Our first port of call was the much painted castle of Eilleen Donan (pronounced Eelan doe nan)
I had decided on a new approach.  In an effort to brighten up my paintings I would try painting on a white ground, do a simple block in in the base colours then apply thick paint.

Eileen Donan Castle. Oils on Canvas Board 12x10"

This was my first try at this new regime:
My thoughts were that I didnt like working on the white ground, it was hard to eliminate all the specks of white showing through, not so much of an issue when working on  tinted ground.
The thicker paint did make the colours brighter, but the effect of the bright light outside still makes me paint darker than I would like, so I will need to compensate by painting higher key colours.


The next day we drove over the Skye Bridge at Kyle to Isle Ornsay on the Isle of Skye.  We have been here sailing in the past, and anchored up, coming ashore to eat at the restaurant owned by Claire MacDonald, not far from here.

Lighthouse at IsleOrnsay 12x10" Oils on Canvas Board

The little lighthouse on a spit of land stands in front of the mainland, that is the the hills around Glenelg in the distance.  We definitely had better weather on Skye than on the mainland that day.  I started painting with the tide out, but it definitely looked better as it came in, so the tide came in on my painting too.  More practice with thick paint.  I prefer the marks made with a brush than those from a palette knife, but still experimenting.

 This next one was done over a couple of days.  Not long after I started it the heavens opened and i got absolutely drenched, so I went back later, on a better day to finish it off.  Once again the tide was out when I started, but the reflections in the water when the tide was in were irresistible.  This was a smooth board that I had gessoed and textured somwhat.  The paint slides onto it more easily, but it is harder to get a good thickness of paint on. I prefer the grab of canvas.

Being done up - Glenelg. Oils on Board  12x10"

Then we went up the road to Plockton.  Another of our old sailing haunts and probably the most painted village in the Highlands.

Plockton, rising tide.  Oils on Canvas Board 12x10"

The weather was beginning to improve but we still had interesting and complex skies.  Trouble with that is they can interfere with the picture, so you have to decide if the painting is primarily about the sky, the scenery, the atmosphere.  Still an issue I struggle with.

The immediate problem here for me was the boat.  Without it, the bay looked kind of empty, there were actually a few boats there, but I wanted to include one with a simple mark.  Not an easy task for me, being an inveterate fiddler!

A glorious day took us further down the coast to Armadale and Corran, even more remote and accessible only by a single track road, and overlooking the  uninhabited peninsular of Noydart.

Corran, across to Noydart. Oils on Canvas Board 12 x 10"

We were spoiled for choice of subject matter.  There was a public toilet, and the lovely old lady who ran the Tea Room was delighted to have someone to talk to, and produced an excellent toastie for our lunch.  The chickens clearly weren't used to having artists around, and pecked inquisitively at our equipment.

On our last day we trundled a mile down the road to the Kylrea ferry, a tiny vessel that takes 6 cars across the rushing Sound of Sleet to Skye.  It is run by the village community and is a welcome relief for the locals not to have to drive all the way to Kyle to go over the bridge.

Kylrea ferry, Wester Ross.  Oils on Canvas Board 12 x 10"

Once again I started before lunch when the sun was out, but hadnt quite finished when lunchtime called.  As we were so close to home we went back, then returned later, to find there was a party going on to celebrate the launch of a newly painted ferry boat.  The Laird was there, together with bunting, a piper and a barbeque.  I felt obliged to make a few festive changes to my painting!

The afternoon was such anice one, that despite the midges I decided to join my friend higher up the hill and dashed off a quick one of a pretty cottage facing the ferry point - the first image in this rather long blog entry.

We had a great time.  I learned a lot about applying lots of paint, abandoned trying to paint on a white ground on day 2, and got into a big mess, but that is what its all about.