Monthly Archives: June 2025

Final Luffness painting, for now ..

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Above: Forest of Luffness 18. Oil on Canvas Diptych 30×30″ and 30×12″. Rose Strang 2025

This is the final painting in the current Luffness series. I may continue painting this theme later in the year but it would take a different form.

Rather than explain or describe the meaning behind this series, I’m going to let the documentary explain that.

It’s going to be beautiful, with specially commissioned music, a highly talented film-maker, powerful ideas, and moving observations, expressed by Richard Demarco. The first draft might be ready by mid July. After some final tweaks it should be ready for public viewing by August.

In the meantime, here are all the paintings in the series …

 

Storm Island

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Above. Storm Island. Oil on 50×50″ linen canvas. Rose Strang 2025.

Part of a series in progress for the Graystone Gallery‘s Edinburgh Festival exhibition launching to the public Saturday 19th July 2025 from 1 to 3pm

The photo below includes me to show scale …

The painting’s called Storm Island because it shows a somewhat abstracted view from the north beach of Iona to Eilean Annraidh, which means (you guessed it!) Island of Storm in Gaelic.

It doesn’t look remotely stormy from the shore, it generally looks somewhat tranquil, even mystical in the way that islands do until you’re on them. A sense of untouched purity with its white sand and luminous tuquoise water.

I can never capture in traditonal or realist paintings that feeling of mystery. Abstracting this painting a little, and painting from a place where I’m thinking of colour, shape and texture rather than what’s actually there, maybe gives more of a sense of that feeling.

The foreground suggests a rockpool. The rock pools on the north beach of Iona are incredible sometimes, you feel you’ve stumbled upon some sort of dragon’s lair, with this lime green water among the jagged jet black rocks.

I have one more of these semi abstract works to finish this week, then the series for the Graystone Gallery is complete. The exhibition launches with a preview on Saturday 19th July from 1 to 3pm. Hope to see you there!