I found this linocut while cleaning up the studio. I cut this nearly 20 years ago and put it to ink today again to see it anew. It was cut as a present to the family in no. 12 The Row, (the end cottage) who were moving away. I lived in number 2 at the time. The story goes that the top windows were all designed differently so that wives of the fishermen could light a candle in the window as a signal to husbands out in the water.
Keith gave an inspiring account of the experience of drawing in public. This drawing was completed over eighteen days in the Harbour Arts Centre gallery. It is a memory of a walk in Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran. He talks of the chance encounters with the public during the process, the variety of responses and the unpredictability of shared stories and experiences. The finished work is to be donated to North Ayrshire which means a civic handover and another chance of wine and good company!
Final post from my Arran sketchbook. Took a trip to the north of the island to visit the old house. These are the twelve apostles in Catacol ( only six in the sketch, midges in abundance) . I used to live in the second one from the left. The sea is on the doorstep and virtually no traffic passes by. Fine days, but eventually had to get back to real life! (my perspective, of course). The cottages form a terrace and are all identical apart from the front upstairs window. No two windows are the same, apparently for fishermen to identify their home when out at sea.
I took a photograph of the sketch (see previous post), thinking I was finished but couldn’t resist adding to it. This is the final stage. I filled in some of the foliage and placed it in the garden surroundings more. I think it is fresher looking before, but still, I do like the fuller leafage.
A palm tree in Maggi’s garden in Brodick.
Drawn on a Samsung Note 8.1. This is the digital version of the view from the window in Brodick, Arran. I tried this first and then in watercolour to compare the two. The act of seeing and making marks as accurately as possible is the same, but obviously the tactile thing is vastly different. I enjoy the doing equally, but do prefer the watercolour as a finished object.
A watercolour sketch of the view from Springbank Terrace, Brodick. This is Goat Fell, Arran’s tallest peak and only 100 odd feet short of a munro.
The three orange oblongs to the right of the large tree is Brodick Castle. As if you need to ask!
David Reid 