April ..thrills and spills in the mountains!

The Cullins from the road to Sligachan

The Easter holidays have come and gone and getting back into a routine hasn't felt so bad after all.

Work from last month is still ongoing. The large painting I had more or less given up on  kept nagging at me. After reinstating the track I finally now feel like it's getting close to working.

Oil on canvas 100x100cm

Our hopes of going to Skye over the holidays materialised and we spent a few very cold but enjoyable days,walking, climbing and lolling about.

Skye hasn't see any rain for many, many weeks and it was strange to see how dry and yellow the  grass and moorland was. Many of the burns were dried up as well. And all this un seasonally dry weather has resulted in numerous and troubling  wild fires. Not so good for the farmers I'm sure but any climbers who were fortunate enough to make it up to Skye over the holidays have been having a ball.

The conditions up top in the Cullins were truly alpine. Crampons and axes were the order of the day. Not having climbed in snow and ice like this for a very long time it certainly was something that felt new and ever so slightly scary!
The descent on the first day wasn't without incident ( balled up crampons and an  ill judged foot placement resulted in abit of a tumble!!) but safe to say I'm still here and keen to get back up to Skye when ever the opportunity presents itself again.

The views were amazingly beautiful.... snow covered mountains are so magical, intimidating and other worldly.

Bidein Drum nan Ramh

Looking towards Sgurr nan Gillean with Bla Bheinn in the distance

Gillean on the ridge of Bruach na Frithe

Summit photo

Looking towards south at the main Cuillin ridge from the summit of Bruach Na Frithe

More down climbing

Sgurr an Fheadain

Time for a loll about

Bouldering with views !

Cuillin ridge from Beinn na Callich

Beinn na Caillich ridge snakes away into the distance

 Back in the studio I started on a series of small oil studies which have ended up  implying a kind of rocky landscape....maybe they'll develop into some more substantial works...later.

Coming back home and spending an afternoon in the relative warmth of Northumberland and then a chillier days climbing in the Lakes, Skye and her mountains felt and still feel like another planet, or at least another country.
 This quote by Charles Pilkington in 1888 on the back of Gordon Stainforths' excellent book on the Cuillin sums up a visit to Skye and her mountains very well.

"We who have been have gone again,and advise you to go. You will not be disappointed"

Lastly, those collographs I mentioned in my March blog. Well I had a play around with inking them up. It's a start and I'm looking forward to making up some larger more experimental plates in the coming weeks.

Small Collograph 

March Smarch

Weather wise it's been a pretty rough month. Here in the Borders we have been lucky and missed the worst of the snow, but the last few days have been bitterly cold.

Signs of spring

Our outdoor activities have been somewhat curtailed, feels a bit like ground hog day. Looking back to March last year at the first post of my weather diary,temperatures couldn't be more contrasting...18 c then, -1c now!!

Gorse at Kyloe (end of February)

Kyloe 

Work in the studio has been steady. I seem to be fairly well motivated despite not having any real pressing deadlines. Strange for me but I suppose when you get to this stage in life making work becomes a need not a want.

Large Oil based on the coast

Detail

I've been finishing off a couple of large paintings. One linked to the coast (from visits made earlier in the year) and another to moorland in Northumberland.

Work in progress

Both paintings have not been without their problems and I feel somewhat defeated by the last one.

The trail and tree motifs I have been working with seemed so perfect in the small scale studies in oil, pencil and watercolour, thatI felt confident and ready to scale up. But once I hit the bigger scale both trail and trees had to be abandoned. Compositionally they just didn't work!

Small Oil

Small water colour

Always a lesson to be learned when scaling up. Things which appear perfect on a small scale don't necessarily translate successfully into the larger format. It's all double Dutch sometimes and best abandoned?

Quick oil sketch

Those pesky trees!

A bright day at Bowden, early March

An audience with the Bowden crowd

Early morning sunshine.... a rare sight this pass few weeks

Last week end

View from the studio this week

Meanwhile in between working on the larger paintings I've been planning out some plates for collograph prints....(my students have been inspiring me!)
 I've worked with this image in a variety of media, oil,water colour, mono printing so I thought, why not a collograph as well. If the prints are any good I'll post them up here next month.

Collograph plate sealed and ready for inking

Mono print 

The Easter holidays start next weekend. Hopefully the weather will improve and our plans to get up a few mountains will come to fruition. Everyone deserves to feel a bit of warmth from the sun on their faces, after all it is Spring!

Simple things......

It's  sometimes simple things that catch my attention. Almost like things unseen or just bypassed...walking and talking they could be so easily missed and forgotten.

That's why I carry a camera. It is such a useful tool.....it's like having a portal to an unregistered world. This is important to me as I am utterly incompetent at collating and organising materials in a sensible way. Building up a stock of imagery each time I venture out is a way of keeping a diary too.
It doesn't matter that I don't date and remember the exact day, what's important is that every time I'm out I feel like I'm seeing  things with a fresh eye, trying not to take anything for granted ever.

Of course this doesn't always work and you need times when you just switch off and be in the moment, but in the main it helps me to stay focused and think painting.

Oil on card-study for commission

Oil on card 

Beautiful Northumberland

Monoprint on tissue

Sunbeams over the Cheviots

It's been a mixed bag in the studio these last few weeks. I've been finishing off a couple of commissioned paintings whilst gearing up for new pieces. The sessions spent making small oils on card have been rewarding and again have broken up the making  process and fuelled two new big paintings which I'm still working on. It's a good way to work, these tiny paintings are not precious and whilst I'm not exactly churning them out they do come easy when they come! That I might add isn't very often and reminds me of a conversation about making work I often have with my sister....when she's  asked how long does it take you to make a drawing her reply is simple.. "all of my life"!

Oil on card...wishful pinks!

Pathway through the winter heather

Monoprint on tissue

Along with the small oils are the mono prints. I love making these. This time I've used a water based but fairly sticky ink and used thin tissue paper to work on. It picks up the marks  beautifully and I'm going to keep going with this for a while yet.Lots of improvement needed here!

Oil on card

Near Bamburgh

Oil & wax on canvas (work in progress)

Small study for larger oil

Finished commission heading to it's new home soon !
( See post 29 from my weather diary )

So keep keeping on...snow drops are out and poking around in the garden today I spied quite a lot of new growth under the dead leaves. Spring is just around the corner!

Oh and lastly John celebrates his 50th in fine bouldering form!