A rough copy of a  Waterhouse painting I made as a Birthday card for my wife's niece. I love Waterhouse and the earlier proper Pre Raphaelites -not just for the quality of their art but their adherence to a  then revolutionary set of values; painting en plein air what they saw in nature. Their paintings were the opposite of sketches often taking months to complete .

River Don

Braeriach

Two prints I've put in my etsy shop . Both painted some years ago . The first is an Autumn view of the Don at Lord's Throat, the  second the cliffs of the Braeriach at sunset.

Went to Resipole to get a picture framed at the gallery on Sunday. There are some outstanding works of art there -lots of amazing mountain pictures as well as figurative art and some illustration including a few by Cliff Wright who designed the covers of the Harry Potter books.The gallery is well worth a visit  and is of course set in gorgeous countryside. I did this quick sketch of Ben Keil whilst waiting for the ferry.

Some sketches from this week.
There have been some gloriously hot days but also quite a lot of rain. I've been lucky enough to get out and about to Mallaig and  Ardgour and Spean Bridge. Everywhere I look the are views crying out to be painted . If only I had more time and didn't have to go to work!

Icelandic Horse

It was wet yesterday and my back was sore again so I took the opportunity to paint a friend's Icelandic horse from a photo . The hill at the back is accurate but I missed out some ugly buildings in the foreground.
I don't often paint animals because my favourite subject matter is mountains, also it is more difficult to get a realistic looking picture unless the animal is just right. However I really enjoyed doing this one . I started wet in wet then added more detail as the paper dried. I did wonder about putting another horse in the background but decided not to.

New picture for my etsy shop . This is based on  the the view from the main Inverness road on a sunny afternoon and is typical of the beautiful weather we have been having recently.

The day after my failure on the Great Glen ultra ( which incidentally was a great success as a race and will I'm certain become a classic event to rival the West Highland Way race) we had a lazy time driving around Ardnamurchan. The weather was beautiful again and we did a short walk from castle Tioram near Acharacle. The castle is sadly a ruin but is built on a tidal island in a beautiful bay in Loch Moidart. It really is the most picturesque setting imaginable.

Quick sketch of Castle Tioram on the island of Eilean Tioram

Sketch whilst walking along the coast

The path by the loch near castle Tioram

Last weekend I had  my first ever DNF ( did not finish) My back had been very sore all week but I'd hoped a trip to the osteopath would fix it. At 1 AM standing on the start line of the Great Glen ultra I tried jogging on the spot - it hurt a lot . I started the race hoping the pain would ease of but after 1 mile I was really struggling . I phone H asking her to pick me up from Gairlochy. However when I got there I felt slightly better so carried on. I  enjoyed the next section to Clunes,it was a beautiful mild night ideal for running.However I was holding myself awkwardly and soon had a sore groin and knee as well. By 20 miles I was down to a survival shuffle. It was a bit ridiculous- I can normally run 20 miles( commuting to and from Fort William) and do a full days work as well. I knew that there was no way I could get to Inverness which was 52 miles away.

Great Glen Way at Fort Augustus

 Just at that point H drove up on her way to man a water station near Drumnadrochit. That decided it ;I jumped in the car and spent a pleasant day giving out water and coke to other runners.

Great Glen Way 4 miles before Drumnadrochit

Another week of lovely weather. The countryside is full of growth , abundant wild flowers - foxgloves , daisies ,vetches , meadowsweet,cow parsley and much more. I can't think of enough superlatives for how nice it has been , even the midges have taken a back seat due to a slight breeze. Running to work in the mornings has been a delight. I wish I had more time to sketch  - everywhere you look there are stunning views crying out to be painted.

North face of Ben Nevis showing Coire Leis

Evening view from the west end car park of Fort William

Coast near Arisaig

More sketches from this week

The Ben from Inverlochy -early morning

I was disappointed by the picture above when I did it. I had half an hour to spare after getting the bus to town - I still have a sore back and am meant to be tapering for a race so have not been running to work this week. I  have wanted to paint the view from the bridge between Inverlochy and An Aird for a while and this was the perfect morning for it . Clear blue sky , beautiful reflections in the millpond calm river , deep shadows and a hint of mist at the base of the Ben. However I couldn't get the washes to flow properly . I think possibly that it was so warm that the paint was drying too quickly - this very rarely happens in Lochaber so I wasn't prepared for it ! However I took a photo on my 'phone and have since worked on the picture with pens and watercolour pencils and am now quite pleased with it.

View north from the Localine Road

These two pictures are very quick sketches done on a trip to Lochaline yesterday When I say quick the bottom one was a matter of scrawling an impression with watercolour pencils then adding some water with a waterbrush  before the ferry left - 2 minutes tops!

From the Corran ferry before departure.

A Good Week For Sketching

It's strange how one week I don't seem to get time to sketch and the next lots of opportunities arise . It shows the value of always having a sketchbook or at least a pen and paper on your person as you never know when you will have a spare 5 minutes. This week I actually have a backlog of sketches to upload. The dry weather persisted until Thursday and there were dark mutterings among the farmers about a drought but then it started to rain heavily and it has hardly stopped since. Yesterday we also had a small earthquake in Fort William ( according to the T.V. news ) but I'm ashamed to say I didn't notice.

View from town centre car park

Pap of Glencoe and Loch Leven

View from the cemetery- this and the next sketch could do with some extra work at home

North face of Ben Nevis on a dull day

 The first two sketches were in  my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook the last two on a hot pressed Arches block. I normally use rough Arches paper but I've run out so resorted to a smooth  hot pressed block . The paint flows in a different way which takes a little getting used to.