rain

After so much early cold, one frosty morning and then unseasonable warmth in November, we have rain. So much rain, apparently a whole month’s worth in a couple of days.

Yesterday’s walk in Kemback wood with overflowing burns, new waterfalls and burbling streams rushing down paths left drying jacket trousers shoes and dog coat hanging about all day, and not really dry by the evening.

Today there is more rain, I think we will walk around the houses and inspect the state of the river, make it a short one.

Yesterday’s wet fallen leaves took on an extra glow.

This beech tree has dropped the lot. Soon they will be a slimy soggy mess in this weather, and treacherous on Kemback’s steep paths.

I think the trees grow extra tall on these steep slopes.

This is taken from the original 6″ OS map. The amount of land that’s wooded seems about the same, except for two areas which are now grazing on the east end of the wood. These cottages at Flisk are still there, though the fields divided into smaller units, and one smallholder has planted a new wood and a lot of individual trees. The first image on this  blog is around the K of Kemback Quarry, which seems to still be active at this time, so it is a much bigger hole now, and that quarry face moved further back.

Further south and west on the map, near the top of Jenny’s steps, which are a later improvement, though Jenny’s cottage is on the map, in the corner of the field (“brae”) in the bottom left corner of the above section of the map, and this photo is facing up the road from that bottom corner.

She was reputed to have an illicit whisky still hidden in the wood. The wooded area to the right of her cottage is now a meadow. You can see the area marked “Old Quarry” which is now wooded over but the buildings marked here above those words have been converted into a very nice house in an idyllic setting. The track marked to the right of it, and the buildings are still there too – cottages now, and more added. They have a terrific view across the hills of North Fife and into Angus and Perthshire.

However the old quarry with the caves is not marked at all, even though it was then not treed.

On the current OS explorer map it is very evident as the white area marked Blebo Craigs Quarry (dis). A mystery! perhaps the whisky still was in the caves and the map maker was in cahoots with Jenny. The fascination of this place is, so far, endless.

I have found new paths recently around the top of Kemback Quarry. They all go in roughly the same directions and meet up with other paths I use.

Near the bottom of Jenny’s steps. It is a sheltered walk, but now after all the rain it’s going to be muddy and slippery in places.

But this morning we got wetter walking around the houses here in Cupar, in fifteen minutes, than yesterday in the wood.

One is protected by the steep slopes and tall trees from wind and rain. Unless the gale is from the north as it was last year, when many big trees were blown over.

And at the top, in the lane that runs along by Flisk to Shepherd’s Lane it’s more exposed.

All of it prompts me to get the phone out and snap … this is with a Hipstamatic filter (Milwaukee) which then relates straight back to what goes on in my studio, but not deliberately.

Sort of justifies the colours which if I were in Australia would be absolutely truthful. However my truth is an inner truth. Also there is the example of Barbara Rae, the very well known Scottish painter whose saturated colours inflame her local landscapes.

These four are currently in a mixed winter show at the Tatha gallery in Newport-on-Tay, which inspirationally, is called Finding the Wonder. The PV is tomorrow afternoon, so I will have something else to post about soon.

Sometimes the figurative makes a move in my paintings, usually accidentally. This one now seems to me to have something to do with angels over Cupar, prompted by a fight of Bewick/Tundra swans a couple of weeks ago.

There is something about paint .. that’s what my paintings are really about, the visual pleasure and emotion of paint, and all these interior details of colour and texture, liquidity and layer.

I see and note down all the texture and pattern –

on the beach for instance –

but I can’t use it literally.

It some how gets digested,

into my subconscious. Especially this striping of charcoal and shell –

then it pops up later in some completely different context.

Or rather I have not decided yet what this context is – as it certainly is related to the charcoal and shell striping on the beach where the water has flowed back through the material and displaced it. But has not got a title yet.

In this case the striping is caused by the point of my palette knife scraping through wet paint to the dry underneath, to reveal the pink, gold and blue layer. As much of this painting is about removing paint as applying it. It is a small one, a linen canvas 30 x 30 cm. It would be interesting to go bigger and see if I need broader scrape marks.

the garden is wet and the studio chilly, which disinclines one to go and do anything in there. but I have several things on the go which need attention. However, the weather is truly awful and has resulted in flooding in Cupar, and elsewhere in Fife, and in Angus and Aberdeenshire.

The river is constricted by bridges and artificial banks

so it backs up

and the levels are three to four feet higher, flooding the meadows upstream and the parks in town. But there is flooding all around Fife, especially further west; this looks like being worse than February 2021 which was meant to be the worst ever. And more rain on the way.