Late last Summer we took a trip up to Logierait, which is a small village near Pitlochry in Perthshire. I took the opportunity to attempt my very first ‘en plein air’ painting. It was a lot of fun, but there were some practical issues, such as the continuing shifting light and midges apparently being attracted to oil paints. I had to be more careful than usual with all the bits and pieces as I was on a riverbank and didn’t want to lose anything or contaminate anything.
I started off with a few charcoal sketches which was good to get the feel for the sky and atmosphere. Also helped to work out the composition – with photographs that’s easy because they have edges. The world does not have edges.
Logierait Sketchbook #1
Logierait sketchbook #2
Logierait Sketchbook #3
The tree sketches were inspired by the David Hockney exhibition I’d seen a couple of months previously, where despite the huge incredible canvases, what really blew me away were his little charcoal studies of trees, bushes and undergrowth.
I attempted the painting in one go – no prep – with bold strokes at first then refined later. Because I was using board rather than stretched canvas (easier to deal with in the field) the paint stayed thick and workable on the service and took about a week to dry. It accumulated a few midges too – live art!
Over The Tummel (2012)
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