Autumn Light and Colour
Ealier this week we dropped everything and headed out for the day, camera and sketchbook ready, to catch the autumn colours. They’re different every week.
We like it when the forecast for a clear dry day is right!
Autumn colours and the river Tummel, Perthshire
Autumn is a favourite time of year to enjoy the Scottish landscape. Her price is the change of the clock and shorter daylight, but I think it’s worth it.
Schiehallion on the horizon
Sometimes I walk and sketch at the same time. When I do that, it’s a humble pencil and small sketchbook or a folded piece of paper, easy to shove in and out of my pocket.
The alchemy of eye - hand coordination seems to seal my impressions of a place.
The camera is useful but it’s those impressions that come back with most ease when I paint, a feeling freed like the genie out of a bottle, memory in full action.
Sunlit glens, clear peaks, misty valleys, reflections in lochs, the countryside is a constant source of inspiration. I feel free, like my heart soars out of my chest and flies.
Schiehallion and autumn grasses
The autumn light is the secret sauce, the magic ingredient worth stopping the car for when the clouds part open and it washes the hill side in gold.
The changing seasonal colours are stunning. I can’t help but stop and take photos of the details of a leaf, the skeleton of seedheads or an arresting colour contrast the fashion police might frown upon.
Bracken is quickly dying back, and covering hill sides in rich auburn hues. I enjoy the bright colours of birch trees their yellow leaves seem to reflect the light like a multitude of golden mirrors.
Bronze and russet seem to glow in the sunlight, a glorious wash of colour on the hills. I love the upward curve of the larch tree branches. As autumn progresses, they change from greens to gold slowly.
Earlier this year I finished a painting called Autumn Light, Sma’ Glen I’d begun last autumn (2024).
It’s a memory of travelling through Sma’ Glen in Perthshire, when you’re driving on the narrow stone bridge over the river Almond. When you look west, that’s the view you glimpse. Blink and it’s gone !
Autumn Light, Sma’ Glen
The painting found a home thanks to The Perthshire Gallery in Pitlochry, but I’ve had canvas prints made and they look phenomenal.
You can see my brush strokes and the thick paint on the canvas texture just like the original.
Edge of a canvas print, 4 cm deep
The print is stretched on 4cm thick bars so it’s chunky and looks really good without a frame.
I’ve added D-rings and signed them at the back.
They make a lovely window of warm autumn light in a cosy home.