I return! We've been on holiday to Scotland.

[bunn]

Our twentieth wedding anniversary this year!  We went to Scotland and hired a boat and motored all the way along the Caledonian Canal from Inverness to the far end of Loch Lockie and back! (OK, that isn't actually very far, but it was our first time hiring a motorboat, and there were a LOT of locks to navigate, plus Loch Ness, which can get a bit rough, so it was an Adventure.)

I have lots of photos, but here's the art first:

We had some marvellous misty weather and sunshine slanting through the clouds.  This was a view from one end of Loch Lockie.  We moored here for two nights, and in between, we went down the loch, which I think was the most beautiful loch we visited.  I painted this mostly from life, sitting on top of the boat, which is a cool place to paint from, watching the mist flow past the mountains as the sun went down.



I painted this after an early-morning walk with Rosie, where the first sun was shining on the harebells and the dewy cobwebs, but the mountain behind still loomed black and tall and shadowed.  This was at Fort Augustus, where they have FIVE locks to go up, all in a sequence! So we had to stop and get refreshment, before, and after.



I painted this from a photo, but the dark water of Loch Ness makes for excellent sparkles.


A Famous Resident.  I painted this from life as we were motoring back up Loch Ness towards Inverness.  (Well, all right, I did add one small detail...)

Comments

[diejacobsleiter]

Loch Ness Monster with the Cheshire Cat's smile! Very convincing. How could I doubt that creature?

Thanks for the painting. Looks very Scottish (I judge by photos.)

Glad to hear from you.

[bunn]

The weather was less Scottish than we were expecting : it hardly rained at all!

[narya_flame]

Ahh, what a wonderful holiday, I'm very jealous! Beautiful paintings too, I think my favourite is the one of the sparkles on Loch Ness, though I really like your Nessie too.

[bunn]

I've had a good year for holidays! For our anniversary, we'd been putting away a tenner a month each for the last ten years, so we could afford to have a bit of a splurge and do something different.

It was a bit hair-raising at times, but nobody drowned and the boat was undamaged and although we dropped ropes a couple of times, we got them back before they got tangled in the propeller, so on the whole, the boating was a win.

[narya_flame]

but nobody drowned and the boat was undamaged and although we dropped ropes a couple of times, we got them back before they got tangled in the propeller

Sounds like a success to me!

We are currently in Galloway. It's somewhat soggy, we may need a boat to escape XD

[bunn]

I'll bet: it was absolutely pissing it down yesterday! Hope you haven't been entirely washed away.

[narya_flame]

PS - happy anniversary 😊

[bunn]

Thanks!

[dhampyresa]

Happy anniversary! I love your paintings so much.

[scripsi]

Sounds like a lovely holiday, and much great art. It feels nice to know the monster looks so friendly! :D

[oloriel]

Sounds like a great holiday! And I love the art. The early-morning walk painting is my favourite - the contrast between the dainty flowers and cobwebs, and the stark mountain, is awesome!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Great paintings! You outdid yourself. Love Nessie! How lucky that you spotted her.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

We saw a news story saying that there had been 20 Nessie sightings this year! :-D

[timetiger.livejournal.com]

Nessie has a lovely smile.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think she's like a kind of snail, and I always think they have lovely faces

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Wonderful.

I especially love the sunlight and dew on the gorse and the grasses and the harebells - fabulous!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I love those autumnal mornings when you get the light slanting over the hills and picking out small things in high detail! Lots of blue scabious too, but it was a bit tall to fit into this painting.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your anniversary. I love your paintings.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Ooh, exciting! At least you didn't try Neptune's staircase at the other end :-)

Lovely pictures. Although I walked through quite a lot of sunlit spiderweb recently, so I can do without that....

(Lochy, I think, but it's not mine, so if you want to spell it different :-) )

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the navigational chart thing spelled it Locky or Lockie, because I can remember thinking: well THAT's confusing. And then there was a sign with the name either y or ie, different to the chart... But Google seems to think it's Lochy, and presumably they have investigated the matter...

The hireboats aren't allowed on Neptune's staircase, so we stopped at the end of the loch and just did a walk along to Moy Bridge.

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in the hills where I was walking recently is Loch Loch, if you want confusing. Or there's Coire an Lochan - the corrie of the little loch - in the Cairngorms, where the loch doesn't seem to have had any name of its own to start with, and is now the loch of the corrie of the little loch...

I think Neptune's staircase would be better walked, too. I've only ever seen it from the train when rushing through, but really need to do a better visit :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

What a good way to celebrate - and your paintings certainly do it justice. My favourite is the second one I think.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

I love Nessie's eyes! (I recently heard, in a geology programme, that Loch Ness was formed at the end of the last Ice Age, when the retreating ice sheet left a pile of crap at the western end of the valley, and the melt water filled the sealed space, so Nessie cannot possibly be a dinosaur... and must therefore be an alien ;-)

Holiday + painting = the perfect combination!

[ylla.livejournal.com]

According to New Scientist, or at least the Feedback column, Nessie is a lot of small eels dressed up in a giant eel costume.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[r-blackcat.livejournal.com]

Sunlight on the water is amasing. (Not that the cobweb and flowers aren't beautiful, but I always thought light on the water was a hard thing to paint.)
Happy anniversary!

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Happy Platinum Anniversary for this year! :-)

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

Congarats on the anniversary, and great paintings!

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Happy anniversary!!

I love Nessie! Does she also have a shell, or is she more slug-like?

[andrewducker]

Love the smile on Nessie.

I went to a talk last week about Scotland's canal system, which was fascinating. The change in usage over time, and the ways they affected Scotland when they were first built was fascinating. I work ten minutes at one end of one (the Union Canal), and have walked along it many many times, they really are lovely additions to the environment.