Tag Archives: cairngorms

The Cairngorms and Braemar

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(Above – driving through Glen Shee to Braemar. Photo Rose Strang. All photos below by Rose Strang and Adam Brewster)

The more I visit the Cairngorms the more I understand how they pull at the heart. In Nan Shepherd’s words from her poem – Summit of Corrie Etchachan:

” …No vision of the blue world, far, unattainable,
But this grey plateau, rock-strewn, vast, silent …”

The Braemar Literary Festival was abuzz with ideas and conviviality – it was truly special to be there, but what remains with me is the changing mood and light of the mountains and the sense that just beyond the warmth and safety of Braemar is this arctic beauty, clear water, epic forests and everchanging skies. I really want to go back there and paint!

I was surprised by viewer reactions to my paintings (The Living Mountain series, completed in 2021). It was emotional and I had some really lovely conversations with people who feel passionately about the Cairngorms, for which I’m very grateful.

I attended the festival with my partner Adam, and we were blown away by the generosity we experienced from Art Farm (the people who manage art and cultural events at the Fife Arms Hotel on behalf of Hauser and Wirth). Also by the people who run the Highland Pavilion, who provided us with fresh coffee, scones and friendly chats the two days we were there.

We didn’t expect Art Farm to invite us to their yearly literary dinner at the Fife Arms, along with some well-known authors and poets including David Nicholls (One Day), Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street) and Scotland’s Makar (Poet Laureate) Peter MacKay.

The Fife Arms instagram page has some great photos of the weekend on this link –

David Nicholls was amused when I told him he’d traumatised me with his gripping, emotional book One Day. We chatted about the effects on society of lockdown, touched on in his new book You Are Here, which I’m already enjoying – it has the characteristic loveable, flawed characters Nicholls is known for.

I was sitting next to Peter Mackay for dinner, and had a fascinating chat about Scottish Gaelic, the structure of ancient clan society and Scottish politics. Turns out we’d both drawn a parallel between the underground mycorrhizal networks that connect trees (explored by scientist Suzanne Simmard) and non hierarchical clan society. That was a bit of a niche ‘high five’ moment! Here’s my rambling post on the subject from 2019 – Planets, Narnia, Clans, Trees)

Alexander McCall Smith was as convivial as you’d imagine, telling me an amusing tale about a painting he’d acquired from the Scottish Gallery which turned out to be by a Dutch master!

The entire weekend was a rich and autumnal experience that Adam and I won’t forget, so a warm thank-you to all at Art Farm, The Duke of Rothesay Highland Games Pavilion and staff at The Fife Arms Hotel (unmatched for lush comfort, warmth and style!)

I’ll end with a poem (it was written first in Gaelic then translated by MacKay) by Peter MacKay, which, although it’s about the sea, not the Cairngorms, somehow speaks to me of their pull …

A Week from Rathlin

Translator: Pàdraig MacAoidh Peter Mackay

On the way home from Rathlin
it was the small boat – a motor- boat with a cabin and open seats out the back.

‘You’ll get soaked out there’, the skipper said,
and he was right – the first waves
broke over the prow and drenched us in a oner, saltwater

overwhelming, exhilarating us
and though we peeled the sea off
with our clothes, the salt from Sruth
na Maoile had marked our skin like moles

and the wave the wave is still flowing through us

Seachdainn an dèidh Reachrainn

Pàdraig MacAoidh
Peter Mackay

Air an t-slighe air ais à Reachrainn b’eambàtabeagabh’ann, eathar-motair le caban
agus suidhichean-deireadh fhosgailte.

‘Bidh sibh bog fluich a-muigh a shin’ thuirt fear a’ bhàta, agus bha e ceart – bhris na tuinn thar an toisich,
gar drùidheadh sa spot agus sàl

gar slugadh ’s gar n-aoibhneachadh
’s ged a rùisg sinn am muir le ur n-aodach dh’fhan sàlainn Sruth na Maoile
nar craiceann mar mhiann,

’s tha an tonn an tonn fhathast a’ sruthadh tromhainn

The Living Mountain. The Folio Society publication.

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Above But did I dream that roe? (The Living Mountain Series). Oil on 37x27x2 cm antique pine wood. Rose Strang 2021

“my eyes were in my feet”
― Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain

I’m delighted to reveal (at last!) that in December 2020 I was commissioned by The Folio Society to create nine paintings for their new illustrated publication of Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain. This has been a beautiful project – a challenge that I wholeheartedly welcomed as I’ve loved this book for many years.

The project has been under embargo until its launch date of October 12th 2021, so you can imagine how thrilling it is for me to see it published on the Folio Society’s website!

The link below takes you to the Folio Society’s launch page for the new publication, which features most of the images from the book, accompanying information about Nan Shepherd, and why the book has become such an iconic work of landscape literature.

Robert MacFarlane (author of The Wild Places, The Lost Words and Underlands, among many much-loved books about landscape, flora and fauna) has written the introduction for the book. For MacFarlane, and countless other readers, this book has changed or deepened the way they experience mountain climbing and landscape.

I remember the way Nan Shepherd’s vivid prose enthralled me on my first read. Alongside painting the series (from December 2020 to April 2021) I kept an artist’s journal in which I recorded the creative process; not just inspiration for the paintings, but also everything I learned about Nan from the literary executor of Nan’s Shepherd’s estate, Erlend Clouston, plus the wonderful experience of climbing part of the snowy Cairngorms with my partner Adam in March this year.

I’ll be posting the journal in a series of blogs over the coming months. In the meantime, I hope you’ll take a look at the newly published book on this link! …

The Living Mountain. Nan Shepherd. The Folio Society