Monthly Archives: August 2023

Coigach series day 4

Above Coigach 7. Oil on 10×10 inch wood. Rose Strang 2023.

Today’s two paintings continue the Coigach series on 10×10 inch wood. These will be on exhibition later in the year at the Limetree Gallery, Bristol.

The painting below is a remembered impression of driving through Achiltibuie in Coigach. I take photos as I drive past but if I were just to paint the photos it wouldn’t have that ‘glimpsed’ effect that I want as I’d paint too carefully. So the approach here is just to keep painting and wiping off until it has the sense of freshness – something on the periphery of your vision that you just grasp as you drive past.

: ‘Coigach 8’. Oil on 10×10″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

: ‘Coigach 7’. Oil on 10×10″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

I suppose it’s how most of us see, unless we’re focussed intently on a spot in the landscape, or meditating, or very familiar with the area. There’s a sort of ecstasy in seeing hundreds of beautiful shapes and images whizzing past, and because you don’t have time to examine them in detail, they become etched on the mind almost like photos that just grasp the essentials.

Sometimes, hundreds of such images will play through my mind when I’m half asleep, which I find strangely magical.

I wonder if Ilsa D’Hollander had that experience. I mentioned her paintings a few blogs ago as I’ve long been a an admirer of her work. D’Hollander would cycle through the Dutch countryside then return to paint memories and fragments of what she’d seen in the studio. It was difficult and sad to hear that she’d taken her own life while still young. I haven’t really researched into that as I’m not sure I want to know – in any case she left a legacy of beautiful paintings, with an incredible astuteness of eye.

There’s a peace in her paintings that’s very familar to anyone interested in Northern Renaissance paintings and a light I can relate to, coming from the northern hemisphere.

More tomorrow …

Art launch – This Friday 1st September

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Above Aberdeen Art Fair (AAF) 2022.

I’m really excited to be showing with the Limetree Gallery as part of this year’s Aberdeen Art Fair. The AAF is a yearly public event that attracts galleries, collectors and buyers from across the UK.

(Billy Connolly at AAF 2022)

It was nice to recieve a mention in Aberdeen Live who were interested to hear that a selection of my paintings (commissioned by the Folio Society for their publication of Nan Shepherd’s Scottish classic The Living Mountain) will be on exhibition at AAF this year with the Limetree.

Article link here – Aberdeen Art Fair to Feature Nan Shepherd-Inspired Works

Aberdeenshire is of course the birthplace and lifelong home of Nan Shepherd, so I’ll be taking the opportunity to appreciate the landscape while up there this weekend as I’ll definitely be heading up to attend the AAF on Friday. Hope to see you there!

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https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/aberdeen-news/aberdeen-art-fair-feature-nan-8709373

Coigach series day 3

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Above – Coigach 2. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023.

I’ve realised that strictly speaking this series should be called ‘Coigach Series’ since the paintings are not just my impressions of Achiltibuie. I tend to call the Coigach area of Scotland’s west coast ‘Achiltibuie’ since that’s where I go to visit friends when I’m up there. The whole area is Coigach though – named for one of the mountains in the area. Coigach is an incredible landscape featuring unbelievably pointy mountains with beautiful names such as Stac Polaidh and Suillven. I’m gradually getting to the more dramatic scenes as I progress.

I’ve been getting into the feel of this series on 5×7 inch wood, but today I moved on to 10×10 inch wood as I’ll be creating a series for the Limetree Gallery’s winter show this year. I feel this Coigach series will suit the gallery well. The gallery owners have asked their artists for paintings in the 10×10″ format, which suits me well as I often work at that size.

Here are the latest 7×5 paintings, and the first at 10×10 …

: ‘Coigach 2’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

: ‘Coigach 3’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

: ‘Coigach 4’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

: ‘Coigach 5’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

: ‘Coigach 6’. Oil on 10×10″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

Achiltibuie series day 2

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Above – ‘Achiltibuie 3’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

It’s always interesting when you feel you’re going in the right direction paint-wise, but it’s not quite there yet. I prefer the painting below (Achiltibuie 4’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023) to the one above. The one above looks predictable to me whereas the one below has more mystery. Hmmm!

Achiltibuie series

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Above ‘Achiltibuie 1’. Oil on 5×7″ wood. Rose Strang 2023

It’s been a very experimental time these last few weeks, not least since it’s impossible to find time to paint on a regular basis, or to focus on one subject with all the projects going on. My studio is temporary till next year and consists of a tiny kitchen alcove, until we find a new home somewhere rural where we can stretch out a little. Needless to say I can’t wait, but it’s a laborious process.

The painting above is from a series I’m painting of my impressions of Coigach and Achiltibuie where we stayed for a few days back in May. I’ve always loved the impressions of landscape that remain in imagination after driving through it. One of my favourite artists, Ilse d’Hollander, had a similar approach – she’d cycle through the countryside of Holland, then return to the studio to create semi abstract impressions. A ‘painter’s painter’ as she was described, she wanted to say a lot with little, more about distilled memories of her short journeys. A sense of space, or light, or distance for example.

I particularly enjoyed this short video about her work, beautifully filmed and edited by Gauitier Deblonde …

Ilse D’Hollander film

Despite all the distractions, I must find time to paint a series for the upcoming winter exibition at Limetree for November. I’m also getting together a little project with my friend and collaborator Atzi Muramatsu. I’ll be creating small portraits in oil on wood of Atzi and members of a small string quartet. The quartet will then play for one night at The Scottish Arts club in November. It’ll be a nice little project, meaningful but manageable!

I’m exploring some more abstract approaches at the moment, or mixed media anyway. This piece was created with plastic, cold wax and oils. Quite good fun, it’s good to loosen up – not to always feel you have to stick to the same approach.