"Rich Pickings"(linocut) and "Storm Winds" (watercolour) are the titles I gave to a couple of pictures showing birds I watched years ago on a stormy day on the Aberdeenshire coast.
I had set up my easel, canvas and paints in an early morning, with bright sunshine calling me to capture the interesting light catching interesting buildings tightly hugging the coastal pathways at the edge of the harbour. Birds were not in my mind initially!.
I was using acrylics as these dry quickly, and I was pleased to notice that the tides that day should allow me maximum painting time!
But as the day progressed I was rapidly losing heart, as strong blustery winds were not only providing challenging conditions, buffeting my canvas and causing me to weight my easel with stones! However, frequent showers were not only limiting progress, but were not even allowing my quick drying paint to cure, but were washing my efforts completely off the surface! The last straw eventually came when a surge caused the tide to suddenly wash right up the beach, sending me flying before it, grabbing what I could just in time to avoid a soaking! Fortunately my 'kit' included a flask of cocoa, so after a suitable pause I tried again, only for the showers to continue! Eventually I gave up for the day, but as I was packing up I noticed a little gaggle of gulls searching the ebb tide. They were only there for a few minutes, but just allowed me time to take some reference photographs!
The resulting artwork I think demonstrates the intensity of my experiences that day!
I had set up my easel, canvas and paints in an early morning, with bright sunshine calling me to capture the interesting light catching interesting buildings tightly hugging the coastal pathways at the edge of the harbour. Birds were not in my mind initially!.
I was using acrylics as these dry quickly, and I was pleased to notice that the tides that day should allow me maximum painting time!
But as the day progressed I was rapidly losing heart, as strong blustery winds were not only providing challenging conditions, buffeting my canvas and causing me to weight my easel with stones! However, frequent showers were not only limiting progress, but were not even allowing my quick drying paint to cure, but were washing my efforts completely off the surface! The last straw eventually came when a surge caused the tide to suddenly wash right up the beach, sending me flying before it, grabbing what I could just in time to avoid a soaking! Fortunately my 'kit' included a flask of cocoa, so after a suitable pause I tried again, only for the showers to continue! Eventually I gave up for the day, but as I was packing up I noticed a little gaggle of gulls searching the ebb tide. They were only there for a few minutes, but just allowed me time to take some reference photographs!
The resulting artwork I think demonstrates the intensity of my experiences that day!
