HCRart Travel : Scotland

Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts

The gorgeous heatwave that Scotland and the rest of the UK has been experiencing seems to be on its way out in Scotland. Saturday past, however, felt like I was somewhere other than Scotland with the temperature soaring and clearing clouds making way for strikingly blue skies. I took advantage of this weather by spending the afternoon outside watching Wimbledon followed by the World Cup third-place play-off. It was my second time in a week watching the football on the big screen in The Pear Tree pub's beer garden though the atmosphere was considerably less tense as there was not so much at stake. Less tension made the sun even more enjoyable and created a real summer vibe.

photo of tennis being shown on a big screen in a beer garden

photo of football showing on a big screen in a beer garden

photo of orange juice on a table in the sun with a yellow cap

As a creative, I couldn't let this unintentional colour-coordination go unphotgraphed...!

After chilling - I mean melting - in the beer-garden, my friend and I grabbed some food before I headed to Holyrood Park for a wonderful painting session surrounded by nature. While sketching I reflected on the previous time I had been there last year; I had been in the midst of my postgraduate dissertation and it had provided me with great escapism. This time I could fully enjoy the setting without dissertation deadlines looming! The temperature was perfect for sketching, still really warm but not overly so, and with a refreshing breeze. I also managed to get a bench to sit on which is always a bonus when sketching outdoors.

I painted a view towards the east to give my face a break from being in the sun (wanted to avoid the "lobster-look") and, more importantly, so the details of the view I was sketching were fully illuminated by the sun. The warm sun cast a distinctly orange hue over the landscape almost as though a giant photo filter had been placed in the foreground.

As usual, I started by sketching out black, fine-liner outlines of the landscape. In this I focused on convey the general shapes of the incredible landscape and its various textures and patterns.

After I was satisfied with the appearance of the outline, I began adding light washes of watercolour paint to provide a base layer of the landscape. For the moment, I left the sky blank. That was to be the final part I painted.

painting in a sketchbook by HCRart, Helen C Redman

After adding the initial light washes, I gradually built up the depth by increasing the concentration of paint. This has the effect of boosting the painting's saturation which gives a much richer finish. Painting in the sun makes this deeper saturation easier to achieve as the heat ensures the paint dries quickly allowing for 'wet-on-dry' painting which always results in a more intense outcome.

While in my painting happy zone, a bunch of teenage boys decided that nearby the bench on which I was perched was the best place to hang. The peaceful sounds of nature were quickly replaced by grime and trap music and their chat! It didn't bother me much though as I can block out distraction when painting and when excerpts of their conversation were registered by my ears, it was interesting to hear what this, obviously unrepresentative sample, but sample nonetheless, of teenage boys spoke about.

I bet you wouldn't be able to guess, so I will just say it. Ready? Foxes and hedgehogs. No, not "the birds and the bees" (*cringes at that phrase*), but actual foxes and hedgehogs in the literal, not metaphorical in any way, sense.

Anyway, just as the prime of the evening sun was dissipating, I finished the painting, took my customary "end of painting" photo, and left to enjoy the hour or so walk back home in the last remaining moments of daylight.

silhouette of artist HCRart painting in the sun in summer

landscape painting by Helen C Redman aka HCRart

The bright natural lighting actually made for an annoying photo as it has washed out the colours spectacularly as well as giving it an overly yellow tone... Rather that due to a heatwave than a wash out with rain though!

Thanks for reading!

photo of the artist Helen C Redman HCRart in Scotland

Read another post about me making the most of the heatwave up the east coast of Scotland here

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Driving further north skirting right round the coast, the most famous beach in the area, Camusdarach, can be found. Now this is truly a hidden gem of a beach as you really have to be knowing what to look out for in order to find it successfully. The beach cannot be seen from the road. You first have to park in a small car park and walk through a couple of gates before following a narrow trail through the sand dunes until the coast unfolds before you.

If the sun is out, like it was when I was there, it makes the sand a gorgeous bright sandy white. I'm pretty happy with it as you can see in the photo below!

The beach is partly sheltered by towering sand dunes and looks out across to islands off the coast which creates a lovely atmosphere. Quite a few films have used parts of this beach as filming locations and I could see why.

I loved the fact there was a reflection like this on the beach. Rolling, rocky hills with sand and a reflection below. My favourite things all together. I'm majorly into reflections whether they be Lochs, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, puddles, wet paving... You get the picture, I'm sure!

The beach stretches for quite a distance along the coast but it depends on the tide. On the day I was there you can see that further down the beach was inaccessible due to the tide being too far in.

Despite the sun, the wind counteracted quite a bit of it's warmth so it wasn't ideal for sketching outdoors. It didn't stop me doing a quick sketch though and then had a nice windswept walk along the beach to warm me up!

When the clouds started to smother the sun, I left the beach and headed back along the trail through the sand dunes to the car park.

The next beach I stopped at was completely in the shade and really cold cause of that so I didn't stop long enough to sketch. Here's a few photos of the beach anyway.

The area is called The White Sands of Morar and on a sunnier day the sands would be true to their name. Even on this day, though, you can see the sand is completely different to East Coast Scottish beaches. After going that far up the coast, there was one final stop I wished to make before heading back in the direction I'd come to check in to the guest house I'd booked for the night.

That final stop was Malliag, the harbour of which you can see below. Arrived with perfect timing as the clouds had cleared and the sun was once again visible. Look at the depths of blue in the sky, incredible natural beauty, isn't it?!

Malliag is the end of both the road and railway north through that part of Scotland. The way to get further north from there is by means of the sea, hence the many boats in the harbour. From there you can get to the Small Isles, the Southern part of the Isle of Skye, and from there to the Western Isles such as Harris. Harris has some magnificent beaches I would very much like to visit someday. Although Malliag is a small town, it has most services - places to eat, post office, B&Bs and guest houses, a couple of hotels, petrol station, banks, public transport links, gift shops, a supermarket, book shop, and also an art gallery - always a plus in my book, unsurprisingly.

H x

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One of the great things about the bays as beaches of the West Coast are that they are often visible before arriving. This is especially visually pleasing if the road approaching is raised above the bay thanks to the natural undulations of the coastline.

The beaches and bays are dotted intermittently, without much distance between, along the coastline and of varying visible length, depending on whether it is high or low tide.

Although there were some little bays before this, this was the first beach we stopped at. The earlier ones had caravan sites right next to them so although perhaps accessible by the public on paper, parking on the sites themselves was obviously restricted solely to patrons of the sites so the beaches could only have been accessed by parking a couple of miles further up the road and walking back along the narrow country road. Instead of that, I went for the easier option of going to a beach which was more straightforward to access!

Here is a picture of this first bay I stopped at. It was empty and peaceful, just as I like it. The tide was completely out allowing for many skerries and rocks to be seen, uncovered by water.

Although uncovered by water, these rocks and skerries were full of evidence of their typical marine surroundings. Strewn with seaweed and covered in molluscs, mussels, and other shellfish who make the surface of them their home. The area provided great examples of coastal ecology like this. I don't think I have ever before seen a beach with so many shells on it and due to the temporary nature of the tide being so extremely far out, many of these shells were still inhabited by the shellfish.

The picture above gives an idea of how much of the rocks' surfaces are covered by seaweed and organisms. They are quite the micro-ecosystem! It also shows wonderful Small Isles on the not-so-very distant horizon. Rhum and Eigg are the two visible Islands in this photograph. If you are wondering how to pronounce the names just think of the drink 'rum' and the food 'egg' as that is how they each sound. It's funny how us Scots gave Islands 'food' sounding names. We must really like our food. (I did in fact eat an egg sandwich while looking out to Eigg but certainly wasn't drinking so had water rather than rum!)

Anyway, back to the scenery. The contrast between the shape of the vertical plane of the Islands (Rhum on the left, and Eigg on the right) is very noticeable and enticing artistically. I composed the above photo using the rocks to provide 'natural framing' and the scene provides the inspiration for a watercolour painting. The below collage of photos shows you some of the stages of painting and gives an insight into my creative process.

And here are two little sketches I did of the views from the car when it was too cold to sketch outside:

The view in one direction...

...and the other

It may have been sunny but you could definitely feel the coolness of the October climate. The warmth did appear later though which allowed for sketching where I like it most, outside and fully immersed in nature.

I'll continue my journey along the coast in part 2.

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After the stop at Glenfinnan to see the loch and Jacobite railway (see last post) it was full steam ahead to the coast (sorry, couldn't resist that pun). As the road across from Glenfinnan to the West Coast is so scenic I made a couple of pit stops at aesthetically positioned lay bys on the way there. Although unplanned, I feel that when travelling anywhere it is impossible to stick to a rigid plan or route. Spontaneity and travel tend to go hand in hand.

'All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.' Martin Buber

One of these lay-bys had information about the famous Glencoe massacre (1692), one of the darkest points of Scottish history. In a place of such majestic magnificence it is sad to think of what happened there so many years ago but thankfully episodes like that are confined to history in and around Glencoe.

While stopped at one of the lay-bys I did a quick sketch in my ever-trusty Moleskine sketchbook. After standing sketching for a little while I found that if I went back a bit and leaned against the back of the car I could sketch with surprisingly comfortable support! The late-morning sun was pleasantly warm directly above me so I felt I was in the prime spot for sketching at that point.

It was a view from further into the photo below that I was sketching. The focus of my composition was the viaduct you can just about make out in the upper left quadrant of this picture.

Although I was enjoying the suns soothing rays I knew I needed to get to the coast as soon as possible to catch the best of the day there. I hoped to time my visit to the coast when the weather conditions allowed for the water to appear turquoise and the sand to be as white as possible at the beaches there. Ever since passing that part of the West Coast on the train as a child when I saw the water there for the first time in all its beautiful turquoise glory I have wanted to go back to the area and not just pass by but be able to walk along the beach and embrace the surroundings. It amazes me that despite Scotland being located where it is in the world, an area that no-one could ever think of as being 'tropical', it has bays and stretches of coastline that one could easily mistake for belonging to a tropical country. Only visually, that is; the climate is the continual reminder that the beach is in fact in Scotland and definitely not a tropical country!

It was time to continue the journey to the Coast in search of tropical-looking waters and white sand.

***

Read more in my next post

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This time last week I was a few hours into the drive across to the West Coast of Scotland. It's really rewarding setting off in darkness and then being greeted by the rising sun part of the way in your journey. The Autumn sun casts a wonderful rich dark orange-red-y hue over everything in it's path.

It was a good thing West was the direction in which I was heading. Look at the brightness of the low, rising sun behind. It created such blinding light in all the car mirrors.

Travelling along such a scenic route has great positives. As the road unfolds in front of you, so too do the hills which surround you. Driving through valleys and glens is never boring for me. There is always something of interest whether it be the often severe contrasts in light depending upon from which direction sunlight is coming or where large clouds are looming. On that day, though, there was many clear blue skies dotted with intermittent cotton-wool clouds.

The low mist seen in the photo above was something I had never actually witnessed before. Despite how sunny it was the stubbornness of this mist meant cars were quite enveloped by it for a few stretches of part of the road. I'm going to have to try to capture the atmosphere it created with paint. I always enjoying trying my hand at painting different subjects.

Fast forward quite a lot of miles on from the stretch of road with mist, I reached my first stop: Glenfinnan. This little village has become pretty famous in recent years due to it being a filming location for some scenes from the Harry Potter series. Recognise this scene below?! The red steam train crossing the viaduct? I'm not a particular fan of Harry Potter but I do like the choice of filming location and enjoyed the clips in the film. Arriving early in the day meant I could get some sketching done without coach loads of tourists arriving! I must have timed it perfectly for it was not long into my second sketch that I heard the undeniable sound of the Hogwart's Express (!) (aka Jacobite Steam Train) arriving and crossing over the viaduct. Unfortunately as I wasn't prepared for it coming all I managed to get was a quick uncomposed snap of it on my phone but you get the picture.

Here's a few of photos of my sketching pursuits while there...

Stay tuned for the next installment of my 'Highland Getaway'...

In the meantime, you can search for #HighlandGetawayOct on Instagram to see some more photos or you can follow my account @HCRart on there or Twitter (@HCRart)

Bye for now!

Earlier this week I went on a trip deep in the heart of the west of Scotland for a couple of nights getting plenty of artistic inspiration. Leaving before dawn on Monday morning I set off for what would be one of the best trips away I've had. It made me fall in love with this country even more! The weather was fantastic for October, even better than Summer this year, according to the locals in the area I was staying. My intention before going was to get photos and sketches of the west coast beaches, mountains, and lochs and I think I was successful in my mission. I took plenty of photos and the new empty Moleskine sketchbook I took is now practically all filled with sketches. I visited Arisaig, Mallaig, Fort William, Kinlochleven, Glencoe Village, Glencoe, and some other really small secluded places with gorgeous hidden beauty spots. So many memories of a lovely trip. Autumn is definitely my favourite season when the weather is decent. The low sun of this season seems to cast a redder hue over everything and the sunsets are spectacular especially when they are framed naturally by the silhouettes of mountains and reflected in the water of lochs below. Cloudy days are lovely too, naturally brightened by the ochre, orange, and red tones of the changing leaves on trees covering much of the landscape.

'Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.' - Albert Camus

Here is one of my favourite places from the trip. It is a photo of Loch Leven. I managed to time my arrival at this loch perfectly as the water was unbelievably still creating an absolutely mirror-like reflection. Truly wonderful natural beauty.

Admiring the wonderful general revelation. This also shows the scale of the mountains surrounding the loch on all sides.

'The mountains are calling and I must go' - John Muir

My next post will show the first of my sketches en route to the lovely guesthouse in which I stayed for the couple of nights I was away.

In the meantime, I'll post where you find me on various social media sites so you can follow my art if you wish:

Twitter: @HCRart

Instagram: @HCRart

Facebook: /HCR.art

Tondo: www.tondo.com/hcrart

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