A WOOLLY DISTRACTION

I've been busy, finished one painting and started another. The gorse, or whins as it’s known locally, has been stunning – glorious clouds of coconut scented indian yellow. You may remember my previous depiction of the gorse, but this one is quite different and left me wanting to do more. 

"Gone with the whins" - available at Mission Hall Gallery, Melvich

However, as I was getting myself ready for the next one I was hopelessly distracted by a beautiful sheep and her lamb. The photo, taken by my friend, instantly inspired a new painting.

Copyright Shona McMillan 

After a long time away from the easel, I found “Gone with the whins” to be a little restricting, given the smallish size, so I had already decided to go a bit larger next time. Tempted to portray the fabulous contrast of light and dark in ink, I felt it needed to be in colour in order to portray the warmth of the sun and the lovely pink ears. The composition of the photo is perfect, but it was those legs, the strong diagonals and small splashes of colour that attracted me most. The long tall portrait format helps to highlight those aspects.

So, avoiding black and white altogether, I selected a split complementary palette of red, orange and blue-green.

work in progress!

PAUSE and then press PLAY

I am always thinking about art, whether I am doing any in practice or not. Always seeing something in the landscape that would make a nice picture, patterns, shadows and handsome trees (not to mention the odd quizzical looking sheep).

My day job takes me all over the northern Highlands, covering large chunks of NC500 every week – so I travel through some fantastic scenery and miles of inspiration. But I found that, in addition to a perceived “lack of time and energy” I reached a state of inertia - with so many ideas, where do I begin?

Whilst envisaging this new journey, as if I needed some extra encouragement, I was asked to do a couple of workshops, write an article for a well known artists magazine and exhibit in a new local gallery – all out of the blue and within the space of a week ! So with both the inspiration & the incentive I better get on with it……and change the title of this post from Pause to Play!

Getting on with it in my new studio (happy)

New action photo for an updated bio (copyright Henry !)