The Summer months have now made way for Autumn winds and chilly mornings and fresh new look at work and inspirations. Through July, August and early September I took opportunities, where I could, to venture further afield. With innocent anticipation I packed my tent, walking boots and midge repellant and set off to explore the West.
No matter what my ideas for future work are there is always a pull to Rannoch Moor, and I am never disappointed. It was so exciting to see the light and colour changing so rapidly and I found myself not knowing in which direction to look. Once I had wandered far enough and for long enough all my thoughts for work had changed. In fact, the expectations had dissipated completely. This is a lesson I learn every time I am researching and finding new painting material, but it’s a mistake I always seem to make. Set goals and ideas dissolve away with the passing shower and time and place become dominant. Nature quite elegantly reminds me that there is no set subject, no one way of seeing and certainly no same way of experiencing; nature has the incredible ability of resetting the internal compass. The heather and hills in late summer seemed to be enriched with an ever-changing filter which left me in awe of the magnificence unfolding in front of me to the extent that I found myself often questioning what I was seeing. Now I am home the mystery of the hidden and the subtlety but sureness of the visible seeps through my work once more. It is both captivating and inspiring and will feed my next series of paintings from the west.
Looking Towards Rannoch Moor from Glen Coe