Tag Archives: scottish landscape artists

Braemar Literary Festival September

I’m excited to be part of the Braemar Literary Festival this year. Not as an author, more as an artist in thrall to an author; namely Nan Shepherd and her much acclaimed book about the Scottish Cairngorms: The Living Mountain.

My paintings from the Living Mountain Series will be showing in the Highland Pavilion, Braemar on the 27th and 28th September and I’ll be there for ‘meet the artist’ from 12 noon to 1:30pm.

If you follow this blog you’ll maybe remember the exciting commission I was given by the Folio Society, London, in 2021. The Folio were re-publishing their own edition of The Living Mountain, and sought an artist to illustrate the book. I felt honoured and surprised – this being one of my favourite books of all time! (the Folio edition is now completely sold out – it’s possible to buy a copy online from booksellers but it’s now into the £100s. How I wish I’d held on to more of the copies they gave me. I have just one left)

The Braemar Literary Festival was founded by world-famous art collectors Hauser and Wirth, who own the Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar. The’ve turned the hotel into a quite extraordinary experience, the place is festonned with stunning original works of art including a Picasso and an enormous Bruegel in the dining room. The atmosphere is high-end but not uppity, the style in keeping with its Victorian heritage, they even have a framed letter by Queen Victoria tucked away in an alcove somewhere.

Guest speakers to the festival will include Monica Ali, Alexander McCall Smith, David Nichol (known most recently for the televised version of his heart-rending novel; One Day), Giles Coren and many more interesting authors, journalists and presenters (link Here)

Hope to see you there! Here’s the info again …

My paintings from the Living Mountain Series will be showing in the Highland Pavilion, Braemar on the 27th and 28th September and I’ll be there for a ‘meet the artist’ hour from 12 noon to 1:30pm.

Iona Sea, new exhibitions

Above: Iona Abbey from North Beach. Oil on 30×20″ linen canvas. Rose Strang 2025

Today’s painting, above, is one of two landscapes for the upcoming Graystone Gallery exhibition in Edinburgh which launches on Saturday 19th July this year from 1 to 3pm

I’m taking these two landscapes as a starting point for two much larger abstract works for the Graystone, about which I’m very excited as I really awant to play with colour, mood and texture, not just views of Iona, lovely as those are to paint!

Just looking at my palette at the end of today is an inspiration!

More next week …

Spring and Summer Exhibitions coming up!

Above: Iona to Staffa 1. Oil on 12 x 12 inch wood Rose Strang

On exhibition as part of Limetree’s Spring Show until May 31st are two works inspired by my favourite places in Scotland – the Isle of Iona and Coigach on the west coast.

Happily, I’ll be painting many more works inspired by Iona this year – for the Graystone Gallery in Edinburgh and the Limetree Gallery in Bristol. More on that in a week or so …

Forest of Luffness, painting progress 10

Above: First of June. Forest of Luffness 7. Oil on 12×12″ canvas. Rose Strang 2025

Today’s 12 by 12 inch oil on canvas sketch for the Forest of Luffness series. Also below, the same image (clickable) and a detail …

One more at this size then I’ll be on to 30×30 inch canvas, which will make life easier in some ways. It’s impossible to get more detail on faces at this small scale without getting finicky, which I don’t want.

With today’s painting I wanted to explore the sense of a group of people lost, or searching in a forest. On a larger scale it will be possible to have them smaller and more in the distance.

More on Monday …

June

Above: June. I. Oil on 10×10 inch canvas. Rose Strang 2024.

A return to the subject that I began at the start of the year – namely my fascination with Aberlady and a day in June.

I think I’ve decided not to worry about either the subject matter or the way I paint it. I’ll just paint it!

Below is a work in progress, beginning to capture Richard Demarco’s fascinated expression as he encountered the effigy we all visited that day.

Here’s the painting frm the top of the post, clickable so you can see more detail –

More to come …

Seascapes

Above: Sea Triptych. Oil on three 33×22 inch wood panels.

Below, some smaller works in this new seascapes series –

This series is part-inspired by the Aberlady landscape – which has been a focus this year in most of my paintings.

This style of painting feels very natural and comes easily to me, but I’m still working on expression of the Luffness woods and Carmelite Friary (in Aberlady theme). Sometimes there are too many ideas and it’s better to simply paint instinctively for a while until something more unified swims into focus.

The upshot is that I’ll return to that theme after a brief hiatus into my ‘default mode’ of moody seascapes!

More details soon …

Maspie Waterfall

Above – Maspie Waterfall. Acrylic on 17 by 16 inch wood panel.

A semi-abstract painting of layered acrylic depicting Maspie waterfall in Autumn.

Maspie Burn winds its way from the Lomond Hills in Fife down to the beautiful little town of Falkland. It’s a quiet place, best known for Falkland Palace – a favourite dwelling place of Mary Queen of Scots. There have been settlements here going back into the mists of time, or pre-history to precise. If you keep walking up to the source of Maspie Burn, you’ll eventually encounter earthworks named Maiden Castle, which show the remains of an ancient fort.

Falkland recently became better known as ‘Inverness’ in the tv series Outlander – it’s very much cuter than Inverness mind you, inverness having become a small but busy city. Photo below, me posing in Falkland, ala ‘Claire’, looking quite a bit sturdier and shorter than the model-esque Caitriona Balfe!)

I left the painting fairly abstract as it captures the energy of Autumn without going too pretty. The wood was actually part of a series of old cupboards from a flat owned by some friends of ours. Knowing I usually paint on wood, they asked if I’d like use it for painting. Yes indeed! I like re-using stuff.

Some photos of Falkland and a photo from our walk this weekend at Maspie Waterfall, you can walk behind it!

Forest of Luffness, painting progress 3

Above Forest of Luffness 4. Oil on 14×14 inch wood. Rose Strang 2024

Today’s painting (from a series in progress inspired by the presence and history of a Carmelite Friary in the forest of Luffness) features my neice holding her new born baby, standing within the Friary.

I wanted to capture the sense of strength and protection that a young mother exudes, then the style of painting changed slightly and became a bit more contemporary. Probably something to do with Emma’s outfit which was quite contemporary.

I like this as a smaller study in the series. (All four paintings from this particular summer series below). I’ve been exploring the theme of the Carmelite Friary in Luffness since January, but each set of paintings is distinct to each season.

Painting process – finished painting

Here’s the seventh video showing the process of a painting (which I’m calling ‘The Path’ for now) from my new series inspired by the remains of a Carmelite friary in the mysterious forest of Luffness.

I’m talking here about what my intentions were in making the painting – facing our mortality, protecting life and experiencing the wonder of life. I might just call this painting ‘The first of June in the forest of Luffness’ but I’ll have a think!

These videos are also posted on my instagram which is findable under ‘Rose Strang art’

‘The Path’

The painting above The Path. Water mixable oil on 14 by 14 inch wood, depicts a meaningful walk (with Richard Demarco and Terry Ann Newman) towards the 12th century Friary ruins at Luffness recently.

More on that in this post – Dappled things

Some painting details …

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