Fishing huts

 

Just before we departed the cottage I took a moment to start a postcard sized water colour painting of the fishing huts at Armadale cove. As you can see from a comparison between the opening image and the photo of the actual scene taken on a rare sunny day, the painting is quite rudimentary and raw. I used graphite water colour pencils and a small watercolour brush.

A couple of process images follow. As you can see from the second of the process images it is quite difficult to judge how the the watercolour pencil colours will turn out before one applies water. Of course I could make a colour chart I hear you say!!!!

I said to Fiona that this painting experience has prompted me to try to use actual watercolours in future postcard watercolour paintings when I'm at the cottage. To this end I have bought a travelling set of Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolours. I have also bought a small watercolour tutorial book; and could yet seek out an actual  tutor in watercolour painting.

Art supplies???

 

Some people buy a stash of paper when they are overseas; or maybe some special ink for their art practice. 

Strangely enough Fiona and I require stone and slate for future creations; so our bags were slightly heavier on the way home with the clean slate (above) and washed stones you can see in this blog post.

We also wanted to bring a couple of the carved cottages home as well - see below. 

Given that we arrived back to our Maleny home very late last night there was no art done today - lots of sorting and washing; but I don't think either of those count as creative pursuits!!!!

I'm sure some of the stone will turn up in our work over the coming months.

Art life - art whirlwind

As one looks back it is a bit surprising to see the art-creativity Fiona and I have been involved in during this current visit to the cottage - so many memorable moments including leaving Loss over here (see above) so it can add to the human story of the brutality of Clearances as told through the Strathnaver Museum's collection.

A cross section of art moments follow  - no chronological order

Installing the Betrayal and Loss exhibition

Artist's talk

Students checking out the post they etched the plates for - rainy day!!!

Stone cottages in progress

Natural dyeing workshop

One of quite a few stone cutting sessions out the back of the cottage

Workshop with Lindsey  - soldering solid silver wire on to pre-carved stones collected from the cove.

Cutting a cube from the bottom of the post that would become The Fishers Post

Fiona etching out the back of the shed - etching the plate that would name the post.

The Fishers Post - temporary installation

Charring the cube - given the number of images about the cube (Charred 3 in the Charred series) you might think  Fiona and I enjoyed making this piece together!!!

Markets

Bird feeding assemblages made from timber salvaged from the crates used to transport the slates for the new roof on the cottage.

And of course - hanging peace doves and weather grams on the cottage fence

The beauty of surfaces - layers

The climate in the north of Scotland can be very harsh and human sealants - paints and coatings are no real match for the abrasive wind, rain and salt. However, to some of us the resulting surfaces can have their own beauty.

This blog post simply shares some of the beauty encountered during our stay at the cottage.

Many of the surfaces are print worthy.

Bird village

 

As you can see from the photo below I intended to use the fence post cut off points in one of three possible options. But after a young neighbour admired our bird feeding tower I thought I would make a small bird feeding village created around 5 fencepost points as you can see inn the opening photo.

A few process photos follow. As you can see it was built indoors - a pretty sub-optimal day weatherise!!!

A couple more of the finished village.

The bird village is about 37cm across and 50cm high. It would look good perched on a solid post.

Modification, design and base stages

 

As we get closer to the time of departure from the cottage our minds have turned to consolidation, maintainence and preparation for when we return. 

The consolidation was to put a new base on Fiona's assemblage, Charred 1, so that it was less likely to topple over in the winds we have been having. As you can see from the above images we charred some cut lengths of salvaged fence post and nailed them to the bottom of Fiona's post. This seems to have worked as it has given both weight and width to the base.

I had made a couple of sketches (see below) of assemblages that could be made from timbers removed when the cottage roof was being replaced and some from the crates used to transport the slates.

There is not time to finish them this trip; still I wanted to assemble the loose timbers in the base forms for the two pieces so that they were not just hanging around loose at the back of the cottage. The square post that will have a spiral of cubes was assembled in the workshop-shed on a wet day. As it turns out I have gone with a 4X4 post - made from 16 boards from the side of the crates.

The V assemblage is well on its way - also a bit of wind and rain around on that day; and the studio was in the great outdoors!!!!!! Note, on the left, the cupboard door with rusty hinge marks that had been part of the timber under the slate on the original roof.

Both pieces are now stored against the back wall of the cottage awaiting our return.