spring perhaps, then winter again, part 1

On the first day of March, an expedition to the Trossachs with my daughter – a visit to Callander again first, to top up the electric  car, as it’s a bit of a stretch on the winter battery charge, and to find human fuel at the great bakery (Portuguese style custard tarts and coffee) – and then a few miles further drive, to Kirkton Glen above Lochearnhead,

a walk up and back down a forested valley running north from Balquhidder.

The sun came out, the spruce and Douglas plantations sheltered us from the wind, coats came off.

Especially as the first half was all uphill.

Trees have been very much catching my eye, the shuffle mode on Hipstamatic working its magic.

Our first hill was a diversion to a knoll with views, Creag an Tuirc, and some great trees. A historical site associated with Clan MacLaren.

A rabbity sort of place that N loved.

Some of these Hipstamatic effects make the photos look like paintings.

The hills  were full of little burns, jumping down the hillsides and making cool watery sounds. We sat here on a culvert edge of large mica-sheen boulders for our lunch (huge boulder sourdough baguette style rolls). The water ran under the track and away down the hill amongst the rocks.

A little more uphill, then the route went back down the glen, higher up on its side, with more views.

the trees grow so tall

on these steep valley sides.

In places Scottish Forestry and Land are starting to harvest, but in small patches.

These little segments of open ground may grow some native birch, rowan, Scots pine, or juniper perhaps.

The planted Douglas fir and Sitka spruce trees are very grand, but monoculture always looks rather sad and bleak. However, here is an argument for continuing to grow conifers (click on the link for the full article) which apparently do encourage endangered wildlife. “Regular forest management also aids biodiversity. As areas are felled and re-planted, a mosaic of different habitats is created. This includes open land, areas of clear-fell, broadleaves, deadwood, stumps and more. ”  Hopefully that mosaic is what we saw being opened up.

The red arrow shows where we were in relation to Loch Lomond (the very long loch next to Ben Lomond). Glasgow being just off the bottom of the map.

On turns in the track a view of the quite big hills nearby opened up.

But mostly the track led down between the tall trees. A couple of stray sheep made the dogs think they were deer – a good thing we always keep them on the lead.

Back down by the village, there was a waterfall to look at

and walk across

then back to Rob Roy’s grave at the little kirk. It felt like quite a strenuous day, perhaps I got a little dehydrated in the early spring sunshine. We were certainly very lucky with the weather.

On the next day a run for B on the beach at Tentsmuir turned out to be very chilly with rain on a north wind, so we walked back to the car park in the forest there, which is all Corsican pines, forestry plantings’ tree of choice for sand dunes and coastal areas.

The flooded track

making tree reflections almost like a lake.

It is these Corsican pines that in a more exposed section of three hundred acres of this forest, were all blown over or snapped off by Storm Arwen just over a year ago.

In the rain

so then back to the studio and the things that have been going on there since my last post.

I have been re-examining the sticking of linen over the canvas. mostly because it occurred to me that I could mend the damaged ones that I got from Hobbycraft (they did replace them, but waste not want not) by gessoing the thin raw linen I have a big roll of onto them. This seems to have worked well and now I have two extra canvases.

After my visit to Edinburgh I have been inspired to try including more landscape elements in my work. It’s something I didn’t expect to happen, but the collages are undoubtedly landscapes, so are the drawings in my concertina sketch book (above) and my last painting was inspired by our walk at Almondbank.

The landscape object in this is the giant sequoia at Kemback where the ospreys nest. Not especially recognisable, but it’s there.

There’s also collage

and loose landscapey stuff.

I go back to this canvas, where the collage pieces definitely stand in for trees.

So this is a kind of hybrid painting, a bit strange. Painting on the raw linen is quite interesting, it’s absorbent, so thinned paint is quite different on it. This relates to my seeing Andrew Cranston’s painting at the Ingleby Gallery of course, that has touched off something, to do with paint quality, and layers of stuff glued onto the canvas.

Here is the next one. I had painted thick black lines onto it sort of randomly, and then worked the yellows and greens into it. The old rash unconscious processor said why not try a bit of the linen on this one, as otherwise it was going to be hanging around for ever before I dared do anything else to it.

the thing in the middle turned into a tree trunk, charcoal and pencil first and then the black with a palette knife.

the doocot (dovecot, a neo-gothic architectural item ubiquitous in various states of ruin around here, came from a pinkish photo of one I’d passed in Craigrothie. A bit of childish drawing as a landscape object.

the green on the upper half was a delight to paint, on the raw linen.

Great to paint quite instinctively and leave it nice and fresh. What you leave out is as important as what you put in.