Watercolour Sketching in Glenshee
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A couple of weekends ago, I had a wonderfully productive trip to Glenshee. I only visited Glenshee for the first time a couple of years ago despite the fact it is not too far from where I live. Yet, ever since my first visit I have been back a number of times and it never fails to impress me. It is so seasonally variant with the colours, textures, and scenes of the area transforming depending upon the time of year. Here are some summer scenes. 
And here is a snowy vista from earlier this year, around February, for contrast.
This is my favourite view at Glenshee. You can see an acrylic painting I painted of this view last year if you look in the portfolio on my website (www.hcrart.com).
I have many a photo taken there, some make up my inspiration board areas in my studio, but in this post I’ll mainly share with you the photos I took in June. I have intended doing watercolour sketching while there a few times but up until this last trip, I ended up not doing it; opting to stick with my fineliner pen sketches instead.
It was great finally allowing myself to add colour while there. For me, as an artist, adding colour to paper is so much fun, I feel like a child discovering colour for the first time! The fact a watercolour pan can produce such wondrous colour with the addition of water gives me much pleasure and layering it on the paper with each brushstroke seeing a picture come to life is a great feeling!
I decided to go up to Braemar first and then work my way back down the road painting scenes as I saw them. I usually work the other way around, but it is always good to switch things up and approach things from a fresh perspective. (Plus, Braemar had a shop for me to buy some lunch to eat in between paintings. Food is something often on my mind and it’s important to fuel my creativity with energy from tasty food!) The photo below is of the first scene I painted. It is a view up the valley in the direction of Braemar, not too far south of the village itself. All of my paintings were done using a Winsor & Newton travel watercolour set and Cass Art brushes though I forgot to take a large brush for the sky so that is why all the skies in my sketches are left blank - oops!
During the painting of this second view (below) I was reminded of the challenges a glen can make when painting - the constantly changing shadows due to moving clouds and mountains of significant height! I tried to just apply the basic colours as quickly as possible to give some idea of the textures and hues of the landscape and I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome.
While I was painting a wee fly decided he wanted to explore my paper landscape... But he quickly realised he didn't fit in and flew away!
This third painting was done a little further up the road and conveys another view facing down towards the Spittal of Glenshee.
My final painting is of my aforementioned favourite view in Glenshee. As I arrived there and for the first little while of painting, the sun was in the perfect position to illluminate the vastness of the valley. It clouded over later but by that time I had added most of the colour.
Here is the finished painting along with some of the work in progress photos to give you an idea of my artistic process.
So, that was my little painting trip to Glenshee; I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of scenes from the journey.
Also, I am busy this summer with getting paintings created, finished and sent to various exhibitions I’m participating in or hoping to participate in. If you’d like to keep up to date with details of these exhibitions, keep an eye on my social media pages:
Twitter: @HCRart
Facebook: /hcr.art
Instagram: @HCRart
Have a great day,
HCR
About Post Author
Helen C Redman
