Field Paintings

FIELD PAINTINGS

Gouache paintings made or started in the field, to gather information about colour, texture, and form or as studies for studio paintings.

Moss and Sticks

Kirkconnell Flow

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

In the woodland surrounding the peat dome, fallen sticks flow like streams across the contours of the springy ground. Clumps of haircap moss throw up capsules which glow like amber in sunlit patches filtering through the emerald green canopy of birch and rowan trees.

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Sphagnum Mound, Summer

Kirkconnell Flow

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

As the surface of the bog dries out in summer, mounds of brightly coloured sphagnum moss fade into bleached shades of chalky pink and neon mint, looking strange and bright amongst the soft brown peat.

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Druid Loch​

Drumlanrig Estate, Thornhill​

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

August light casts reflections on the loch surface. Huge parkland trees reach out, far over the waters edge, skimming the pink-tinged mass of lily pad leaves.

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Cordorcan Falls

Wood of Cree

Gouache on bamboo fibre paper 16x23cm

After heavy rain, the waterfalls are in full flow, frothing down and filling deep channels in the rocky ravine. Mossy ground cover decorates the forest floor between oak trees and ferns cling to wet rocks.

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Surface

Kirkconnell Flow

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

The raised dome of peat at Kirkconnell Flow is colonised with heather and fluffy white areas of cotton-grass, as well as seeded birch saplings. The tall Scots pines form a dense fringe where they have been left around the central area. 

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Roots

Kirkconnell Flow

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

Roots and partially decomposed wood are strewn across the peat, making a framework filled with sphagnum moss and young growth of heather and bilberry.

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Dor Beetle

Wood of Cree

Mixed media on watercolour paper

15x20cm

At certain times of year, beautiful iridescent Dor beetles emerge and make their way across the fallen oak and beech leaves. From above they often look like carved black bakelite, simultaneously dull and shiny, with just a hint of the electric blue-purple colour underneath.

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Tidelines​

Rough Island, Rockcliffe

Gouache on watercolour paper

15x20cm

As the sun sets, the last of the glowing light dips behind the silhouetted Almorness headland. The Urr Estuary draws back around Rough Island, catching the bonfire glow in its tidelines.

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Across the Causeway​

Rockcliffe​

Gouache on watercolour paper

30x40cm

Low tide reveals the causeway joining Rough Island to the cockleshell beach at Kippford. Sunset highlights the still-wet rocks and seaweed and casts its glow over the damp sand.

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Sphagnum and Sticks

Kirkconnell Flow

Mixed media on watercolour paper

15x20cm

Sticks lay half-submerged in the wet sphagnum, different shades of yellow, with thin surface water reflecting the sky. 

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Orchard Woodland

Rockcliffe

Gouache on bamboo fibre paper

32x24cm

The lowland heath around Rockcliffe has pockets of old woodland following small streams which overflow from lochs. Old ash trees make monumental sculptural forms, some standing, some fallen tipping up giant tangled roots. Huge cascades of ivy climb through the trees reaching up to the sunlit canopy.

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