Sketching and Painting Holidays
Research is underway and nearing completion for a new Scottish Highlands sketching holiday based in and around the Highland capital, Inverness. With easy rail and air links to the rest of Scotland, England and the rest of Europe via Schiphol, Amsterdam, it will be the ideal itinerary for anyone wanting a thorough overview of what … Read more
This morning I walked through a swirl of golden ochre birch leaves, signalling the end of summer. Although the days are still mild, the nights are beginning to draw in and it won’t be long before I’ll be returning from work in the dark. Whilst this always makes me feel a little sad, it’s a … Read more
It’s been a strange summer. While much of the South has sweltered and shrivelled, we have had far more than our fair share of precipitation. We are fortunate in many respects, yet we couldn’t help but watch with frustration as May and June, our usual good-weather months, passed into damp July. Just the occasional, tantalising … Read more
Ever since I first visited the isle of Colonsay, which must have been around eight years ago, I have longed to return. Yet with so many other Scottish islands to explore, other parts of the mainland – and world! – to visit, it somehow ended up on the back burner. The Covid pandemic and subsequent … Read more
How lucky we were last week, I think to myself as the tail-end of some storm or another lashes against my window. After a slightly disappointing (breezy and showery) first day we had wall-to-wall sunshine for the rest of the week, leading to more enjoyment for the participants and a lot less stress for me. … Read more
Hands up who’s a dainty painter? You know, the kind of person who can capture an entire panorama on one page of an A5 sketchbook? If so, I envy you. At the very least, you waste fewer trees. Some years ago I was given a tiny, minature pad of watercolour paper as a sample from … Read more
Spring arrived early this year. March in the western Highlands is usually a lacklustre, grey-brown month with weak light and too much cold dampness to think about sketching outside. If I’m not overseas in Morocco or La Gomera with a painting group I’m normally up in my attic studio looking for inspiration or hand-painting ceramics … Read more
The most important – in fact, vital – component of watercolour painting is water. This may seem obvious, or if you are used to working in a different medium then perhaps you think it’s an overstatement, yet while the ‘colour’ component is clearly necessary, the key to success in the medium both starts and finishes … Read more
First of all I’d like to wish everyone a very happy new year, and may 2022 be the year we can all resume the travel we would like to do, the meetings we need to have, the holidays we are eager to take. During the dreary months here in Scotland, where the days are too … Read more
The pastel blue sky and perfect reflections of Lochinver in the glassy bay outside my window this morning were deceptive. I certainly needed my polo-neck sweater and duvet jacket on my walk. A thin layer of frost covers everything and, as the sun has already reached its zenith, it’s unlikely to thaw this afternoon. It … Read more
