Artist in Scotland (was on the Isle of Skye, now in Aberdeenshire)
A set of photos taken at Staffin beach as I narrowed my attention to small sections. Pattern, texture, and colours. I took these after I’d walked along the beach and back; I don’t get to a beach and ignore the wide views and sea to focus in on smaller things immediately.
The in-house art critic and I went to a favourite piece of seaside yesterday during a break in the stormy weather, enjoying the tranquillity and gentle sounds. There’s this black slab of rock that I think looks like fossilized dinosaur brains. We talked about how it would’ve been an impossibly big dinosaur, the speed the rock must have cooled at given its grain, why this slab is horizontal compared to the vertical hexagonal columns on the hillside, how the hexagons were formed, about intrusions and conglomerate, and how had I managed to resist picking up that stripey pebble. This is my favourite photo, so colour-coordinated with my favourite bit of rock, they seem one. (And the skew horizon is inadvertent, not a metaphor.)
If you’re interested in the ‘real’ dinosaurs of Skye, this book is available from Skye’s Fossil Museum:
The crisp, cold winter’s light this morning at the water’s edge at Uig Bay created sharp edges and contrasts, which I am enjoying converted into black-and-white. Being low tide, the ‘hairy rocks’ from this month’s painting project were well out of the water.
I needed to post an order for a copy of my Sheep Counting Book (destined for someone with a January birthday who loves sheep) so parked at the community hall in Uig and walked through the woodland to the post office. Lots of iced-up mud, bare branches, and vibrant greens.
Woke up to a world of white, to the view being transformed into almost monochrome, shades of “interesting whites”. And silence as the wind has dropped. After giving the studio cats breakfast and putting the kettle on, I went out to enjoy that crunch-crunch of snow underfoot. Friends who lives in latitudes where you sit in snow for months will have to indulge my excitement as it’s rare for me to have it at garden level.
This time of year, this far north (57°N), the sun sleeps in late (sunrise today 08:58), doesn’t stay for long (sunset today 15:40), and doesn’t get very high in the sky. It makes seeing sunrise/sunset easy, and for a moodiness during the day. Driving around the “north end” this morning to see a friend, I stopped a few times to snap some photos.
First the Trotternish Ridge, looking south:
Then reflections in a little loch:
And then low-tide reflections at the beach at Staffin:
I was at one of my favourite, albeit rarely sketched, locations…
… absorbed by the colours and textures …
… and that blocked-up door …
… when I was startled by a loud, single “caw”, from above me. Glancing up, there was a crow sitting on the top of the wall, looking down at me.
I’ve probably watched too many programmes where birds are harbingers, but right now the photo below feels like it’s the image for the cover of a book I will one day write with the art and poetry from this year that I’m not yet ready to share.
Following on from yesterday’s photos, here are some more, focusing on details.
With the announcement of lockdown in England happening again, on Sunday I quickly rearranged my plans to deliver a commission painting (“Here Comes the Sun“), arranging to meet them near the border. We had been due to meet on my way to my Higham Hall workshop; fingers crossed next March’s will be able to happen. I’m telling you this to explain why I’ve been on the lower part of Scotland’s east coast. Lots of paintable sites, white beaches for long walks, rocky shore and cliffs, plus pebbles and more pebbles. And two firsts for me: ducks drifting along the shore and swans eating in low-tide rock pools. These are some things that caught my eye:
A stroll down the road to the postbox this morning became a stroll in the colours of autumn, of greens giving way to yellows and browns, of moss clinging to fenceposts and dead branches, and reflections in the surface water on the road. Steps taken amidst small joys.
