St Andrews beach on a sunny day

It was a very sunny day, probably the sunniest and warmest day so far this year. Days like this are worth waiting for. :-))

St Andrews sailing boats

A visit to St Andrews on Friday, the weather was fantastic and the sailing club gave a memorable performance. Plenty of artistic inspiration here with so much colour every where.

Art Sunday; Seascapes I would hang on my wall.

This weeks ‘Seascapes I would hang on my wall’’ took far longer than I expected to finish. Not because I couldn’t find enough paintings to include, but because I couldn’t decide which to leave out. The list was endless and getting it down to manageable size was difficult, but this is my final choice.
(Something not quite right with the picture posting again... they have all come out very small but they do enlarge if you click).
 
1. CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH
"The Monk by the sea", Oil on canvas, 1809/10
I chose this one because, it’s so ahead of its time, it looks like a twentieth century surrealist painting not an early nineteenth century painting. This was so unlike paintings of the time it caused controversy in the art world when it was first shown. Personally I love the way it depicts the eternal vastness of the sea compared to the frail mortality of man. This painting is the emotional mirror image of how the sea makes me feel. The sea brings life back into focus, it leaves you in awe and wonder at the world while making you realize what a tiny insignificant speck you really are.  Monk by the Sea (German: Der Mönch am Meer) is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting ‘’The Abbey in the Oakwood’’ (Abtei im Eichwald) in the Berlin Academy exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request The Monk by the Sea was hung above The Abbey in the Oakwood.[After the exhibition both pictures were bought by king Frederick Wilhelm III for his collection. Today the paintings hang side by side in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The Monk by the Sea was Friedrich's most radical composition.

 2. KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI
"The Wave", c.1830
Woodblock print,
This had to be included. It changed the face of art the world over. Whole books have been written about the lasting influence this one print had in both the east and the west. The artist KATSUSHIKA Hokusai, was born in Edo (today’s Tokyo) in 1760, he created this, the most memorable image to have emerged from Japan’s whole long, brilliant culture when he was in his 60’s.  It’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the wave dwarfs Mt Fuji in the background and has in more recent times been likened to a tsunami Japanese painters and engravers have always offered us a different, mystical interpretation of the natural world. This wave is so much more than a mere swell of the ocean, it's a great sea monster, a giant  that threatens with its fangs any vulnerable  ships that cross its path, It’s the ocean's claw powerfully poised to devour anything in its path even the great and sacred Mount Fuji. Variations of this image are repeated in seascapes from every continent even today.

3. JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER
"The fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up", 1839 (London, National Gallery) Oil on canvas
No collection of seascapes could be complete without at least one Turner. I chose this one because I love the colours but also because it reminds me of the many years I spent in Portsmouth, home of the British Navy. I have spent happy, happy  hours wandering aimlessly around the historic dockyard in Portsmouth; looking around the ships, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve toured HMS Victory, I even worked in one of the museums for a while. I generally immersed myself in the maritime history of our country which added another dimension to my love of the sea. Turner is one of the greatest seascape painters from any age, he has been described as audacious and technically perfect. Turner's masterpiece is an unusual representation of a royal ship, they are normally depicted in all their splendor and glory, but here Turner paid tribute to the brave men who served on the Temeraire by depicting its last trip before being scrapped. This supreme work was elected as the best painting in England in a poll organized by the National Gallery of London in 2005.

4. IVAN AIVAZOVSKY
"The ninth wave", 1850 (St. Petersburg, State Museum)
Oil on canvas,
A Russian painter devoted to seascapes, Aivazovsky regularly practices technical perfection. In this painting he represents a group of unlucky castaways trying to survive the merciless force of the ocean. But; typically of the sea, even in the midst of tragedy, the sun, combined with the sea, the waves, the movement, the reflected sunlight through the water, all combine in an image of absolute beauty. The particular shade of green he uses with such perfection to highlight sunlight through the sea, is a shade I’m very familiar with. It is exact in shade, hue and tone to the waves that crash onto our beach.

5. Claude Monet 1867,
"The Beach at Sainte-Adresse",oil on canvas
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois USA.
Sainte Adresse is a location close to Le Havre. Monet was aged only 27 when he painted this view of a beach near Le Havre, on the Norman coast of France. His parents lived at Sainte Adresse. Monet was fascinated by boats as well as seaside or any form of water. This is one of his many, many water paintings, choosing which one to include was difficult in the end I chose this one because the colours remind me of the sea here on a winters day. This is timeless, anyone who lives by the sea, anyone who has ever seen fishing boats, will recognize this scene. This is a scene that’s so much a part of so many peoples lives, he captures the ordinary everyday and turns it into a thing of beauty.

6. Starry Night Over the Rhone ( September; 1888) is one of Vincent van Gogh's paintings of Arles at night;
This was painted at a spot on the banks of river which was only a minute or two's walk from the Yellow House on the Place Lamartine which Van Gogh was renting at the time. The night sky and the effects of light at night provided the subject for some of his more famous paintings, including one of my all time favourites; Cafe Terrace at Night which he painted earlier the same month, and the later canvas from Saint-Rémy, 'The Starry Night'. A sketch of the painting is included in a letter van Gogh sent to his friend Eugène Boch on October 2, 1888.The painting was first exhibited in 1889 at the annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris.
This is a painting that just makes you sighhhhhhhhhhh. It’s the visual equivalent of the big satisfied sigh as you sit back and relax  after a good meal and a bottle of wine.


7. William McTaggart;  Paps of Dura 1902
This is one I’ve stood in front of at the Kelvingrove gallery and stood and stood and stood transfixed. I have to say; this is one of those paintings that you have to see to appreciate. When you stand in front of it you become lost in it; it’s as if you are there, it evokes the sound of the gulls, the crashing waves and the soft coastal breeze. You can almost smell the sea just by standing in front of this. McTaggart is undoubtedly one of Scotlands greatest seascape painters, he has an instinctive understanding of the sea, his love of the sea shines through his work. He was one of the finest painters Scotland has ever produced, an original genius, a pioneer of impressionism before it even had a label. In his early years he taught himself drawing and painting, and at the age of twelve he was able to earn extra money with his ability as a portrait painter. McTaggart was born of crofting parents at Aros Farm, near Machrihanish, at the present day a farm beside the East end of the airfield at Machrihanish. His parents were Gaelic speaking and his mother was a granddaughter of the religious poet, Duncan MacDougall

8. Sir Peter Scott
1943 WIGEON CROSSING LOW OVER THE CREEK
Sir Peter Markham Scott, the man had so many awards I’m sure he found it difficult to remember them all. He was; CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, Born 14 September 1909 died 29 August 1989; he was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman.
Scott was knighted in 1973 for his contribution to the conservation of wild animals. He had been a founder of the World Wildlife Fund, a founder of several wetlands bird sanctuaries in Britain, and an influence on international conservation. He received the WWF Gold Medal and the J. Paul Getty Prize for his work. This is just one of his many bird studies that he painted during his long and illustrious career. He has done so much toward raising awareness and conservation of our endangered coastlines, wetlands, and birds he should be included in this collection on merit of his good works alone. But its not necessary to emphasise his acts of conservation, his paintings deserve a place here on their own merit. This particular one reminds me of the Canadian geese which migrate here and then fly back again. Watching for the distinctive V shaped flock of birds, and the familiar cry, is a sign of the changing season in much the same way as the first Robin of winter or the first snowdrop of Spring. The colours in this watercolour are perfect, exactly as they should be late afternoon of a winter day.

9. Joan Eardley ‘’Catterline in winter 1963’’
Oil painting on board.
I cannot explain how much I admire this womans work. I’ve been to the tiny clifftop cluster of cottages where she lived and worked. I’ve seen the small cottage overlooking the sea where she did some of her greatest work. I have a friend who knew her in the 60’s and who visited her at Catterline. My friend tells how this woman would stand knee deep in the sea as the tide came in, desperate to finish capturing the image before her and apparently oblivious to the rising danger. Her work is vast, huge powerful canvases that swallow the viewer and transport them into the center of her universe.

Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley was originally English but by the time of her death thought of herself ( and was thought of ) as a Scottish painter. She was born in Warnham, Sussex, England where her parents were dairy farmers. Her mother, Irene Morrison, was Scottish and  Joan had a sister, Patricia. The girls had a sad childhood, their father suffered mental health problems after being caught in a gas  attack during World War I, when Joan was seven he committed suicide. Joan's mother took the girls to live with her own mother in London in 1929 where an aunt paid for the girls' education at a private school and where Joan's artistic talent was  recognised. In 1939 she, her mother and her sister moved to Glasgow to live with her mother's relatives and in 1940 Eardley enrolled at Glasgow School of Art as a day student.
Eardley set up a studio in Glasgow, close to the deprived Townhead area, where she became known for her drawings and paintings of poor city children, often playing in the streets in ragged clothes, the older girls looking after younger siblings. She also drew numerous scenes of the shipyards of Port Glasgow. Eardley had developed a unique style and she soon had a reputation as a highly individual, realistic and humane artist of urban life. She was often to be seen transporting her easel and paints around Glasgow in an old pram.
In the early 1950s while convalescing from mumps Eardley was taken by a friend to visit Catterline, a small fishing village near Stonehaven, Her friend bought her a cottage there and she started to spend part of each year away from Glasgow in Catterline. Eardley bought another more suitable, but still basic cottage there in 1954; it had no electricity, running water or sanitation. At Catterline she produced seascapes, often showing the same view but in different light and weather conditions. She also painted landscapes showing the changing seasons in the fields around the village, her thickly textured paintwork sometimes incorporating real pieces of vegetation. She often worked outdoors and often in poor weather. Eardley became the focus of the "Catterline School" of artists, a group who were increasingly drawn to the village during the 1950s and who included Annette Soper, Angus Neil and Lil Neilson.
I have seen her work, and I have seen where she lived, and her paintings, although not traditionally realistic, are instantly recognizable, I recognise the sea and the land from her work, it is familiar in every sense

10. James Somerville
East Neuk Storm, oil on canas.
James Somerville is a graduate from Edinburgh College of Art. He worked in art education at various Scottish Art establishments eventually becoming National Development Officer for Art and Design in the Scottish Department of Education. .
He became a full-time artist in 1990. Since then Somerville has participated regularly the RSA and RSW annual exhibitions and has had several solo art shows in Scotland. James Somerville paintings have also shown at Art Fairs in London, Barcelona and New York.
He is another artist who has worked in this area and whose work I very much admire. His work is dark and powerful. It’s atmospheric, the colours he uses eco the colours found here in the sea and they sky. There are several of his works I wanted to include but in the end I chose this one because of the colour green……………..the sea is exactly this colour on a cold winter day.

11. Raging seas
Ruth Brownlee
Ruth Brownlee was born in 1972 near Broxburn, West Lothian.  From 1990 to 1994 she studied at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Drawing and Painting with Tapestry.  She is a widely recognized artist and since graduating, she has gained a number of grants and awards.  These include;
The Elizabeth Ballantyne Award, S.A.A.C 5th Annual Exhibition,
Royal Scottish Academy, December 1994
Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust Award, January 1996
2nd Prize British Rail Young Business Travel Award, May 1996
The Hope Scott Trust Grant Award 2000
'Scotland's Year of the Artist Award' Scottish Arts Council/ National Lottery Fund 2000 for Artist-in-residence on board the SWAN, the 100 year old restored fishing boat now used for sail training and charter in and around Shetland Isles from May - October 2000
Her paintings are almost abstract, but the essence of the sea is there, powerful and unmistakable. These seascapes could only be painted in her corner of Scotland, there is no where else where the sea looks like this.


12 & 13 Surrealist photograph's by  Ben Goossens
This work was introduced to me by Nemo. Surrealism isn’t a style I always take to, but this man, a photographer not a painter, seems to capture something of the sea that I relate to. The first one; called music,
appealed to me because it seemed to capture the music of the sea. When I talk about the sea, I often talk about the sounds that are part of the sea, the wind, the waves on the beach, the sea birds overhead, the sound of the beach under foot. All of these sounds seem to me to be represented in this picture. His surrealism has added another dimension to the image of the sea.
The second image is called very beginning.
This one says to me that the sea is the source of life, before sea there is nothing but dry parched land and then the sea is poured over it and it becomes full of life. I thought this was a positive image to end on. So many of these paintings; beautiful and powerful though they are, show scenes full of destruction, devastation and despair. So often the sea can be cruel and merciless. This last image reminds us that it is also the giver of life, the source of goodness.

A little about the photographer; Ben Goossens worked for 35 years in his native Belgium as an ad agency art director. After retiring, Goossen's turned to creating photo montages with a distinctive Surrealism style reminiscent of his fellow countryman, René Magritte.His  images have received awards in a number of prestigious international photography competitions including Gold and Silver medals at the Trierenberg Super Circuit, the world's largest annual photography salon. Goossens has also seen his work widely published, including an in-depth 10 page exposition in the March 2007 edition of Photo Art International. His composite photos are remarkable for their seamless yet painterly renderings of Surrealism dreamscapes.

And now some fun, the first one is a group of primary school children painting a seascape on a disused wall. The second one is an artist turning a bedroom into a wonderful water wonderland.

Blue and Green by the sea

Today there was no wind and the sun was hot. I walked into the town via the roads but walked back by the sea. These solid blocks of bright colour remind me of Rothco paintings

Red and Blue at the Harbour.

Yesterday the wind was quite strong but the sky was blue, the sea was even bluer and the white and red of the harbour buildings made a fantastic contrast. These are not photographs of 'the harbour', although of course thats where they were taken, they are photographic studies of colour, shape and contrast.

St Andrews beach, on a sunny day

Seems like for ever ago, but in fact it was only a couple of weeks ago that the weather was nice enough to sit out on the beach........

Christmas Eve 2010

A snowy Christmas Eve 2010 in the park with the grandchildren.

December 23 2010

This was the day before Christmas Eve, snow and ice still covered the ground. The first few photos are of my garden. Then the seafront restaurant I went to for a christmas meal with my friend followed by a few shots of the snow covered boats in the harbour. After that ( pics no 1191-1202) are pictures of the beach at West Haven. The last two are pictures of my window from the inside showing the view through the dripping condensation on the glass

Sunday 19.12..2010

The cloud formations were as stunning as the snow on this day. All the photos were taken between about 2.00pm and 3..30pm on the afternoon Sunday 19.12.2010

November snow

We seem to have had this snow laying for ages now. I have cleared my path twice already only for it to be covered in fresh snow again.

Usan, a derelict fishing station

I ended up here a couple of weeks ago. I knew about this place but had never actually managed to get here. I didn't know the actual history but from the look of it I would say it was deliberately demolished rather than deserted and let to become derelict. There is very little slate left on any of the roofs and there is a lot of building rubble and stone left lying in the small cove. I suspect it became unprofitable and this is the result. How sad.

Feeling a little blue

I've just found out another of my daughters is about to move away. This is the daughter with the two children I have spent most of the summer with. It all seems to be happening very quickly, she plans to actually leave next weekend. I know its for the best for her and the children but ................I will miss them. I took this picture one day while I was on the  the beach with the children

 

 

Dolphins out at sea.... wish I had a better camera

While walking along the cliff tops,

 I could hear the dolphins.


The sound of dolphins hitting the water is very distinctive, its a sound that travels over the water for miles and sometimes, when the dolphins are playing a long way out, you hear them before you see them.

Anyway.............my camera is not particularly powerful; and the dolphins were a long way off, there were about six of them in the pod and they kept pairing up and then separating.

They are fast, they can dive and resurface out of view. I sat on the cliff top watching them and lost track of time.

All of this means  my efforts to photograph them was pretty abysmal but this is the result...........not very impressive as photographs, you'll need to click and enlarge to see anything, but a wonderful way to spend an hour or so. 

early evening august 16th

This was my first day back at work after the summer holidays. It was a warm evening, the sea was clam and the wind was low, I decided to go for a walk. Soon the weather will change and these cliffs will be out of bounds to me again for another year and I thought I should make the most of the opportunity.

On the way to the beach

standing guard

I can't believe the school holidays are over already. I feel as if it has rained for the last month but I guess we must have had some good days. these were taken while walking to the beach with the grandchildren, on one of these rare sunny days this summer

Saturday 24th october 2009

Today started out cold but dry. My friend came for me and off we went, the idea was to find a sheltered spot on or near a beach and paint a cold day by the sea. Virtually as soon as we set off the rain started, it became steadily worse and worse and worse. We had a wander along the beach and took a couple of photographs of the sea and the rusting old winch machinery used by fishermen in times gone by. As far as the eye could see seaweed lie strewn along the beach. Not just little straggly bits of seaweed; hundreds of whole plants with their roots still attached had been snatched from the seabed and dumped on the beach. It looked like a field of writhing brown worms all tangled together. I couldn't help thinking this quantity of seaweed torn from the seabed would have made a substantial impact of the underwater eco-system. The wind howled, the rained whipped the sea and we decided to head inland.
We were hoping for a reprieve from the wind and rain, The weather was no better inland. There was water gushing down the side of the road, it was like driving alongside a small fast flowing river. The trees were nice and the ground was covered in orange and gold leaves, soon it became too wet to lean out of the window to take photos. We had no choice but to head for home. Just inside my gate, bouncing around in the wind and dripping with rain was my last bloom. This new rose bloom battled against the elements and somehow managed to remain in one piece.

Pebbles from the Beach... (a blog in an album)

Untill 'they' get this problem with enlarging photos in blogs sorted.....maybe this is the best way to do things.
These are the stones I collected from the beach the other day. I poured water over them and as if by magic their colours, patterns, stripes and markings came alive. This is what they looked like when I found them in a rock pool, by the time I got them home they had dried and become dull and colourless, all it took to restore them to their natural glory was a little water. These pebbles are every where on the beach, walking the dog has become like a geology lesson, I would love to be able to name all the different rocks found here. I have been told our beach is a treasure trove full of semi precious stones hiding amongst the sea worn pebbles. When you see them sitting at the bottom of the rock pools they all look precious to me.
I am sooooo tired, the end of term is just a few days away. School's out for summer (as Alice said) next Wednesday. We finish at 12 after prizegiving and then head to the pub. We eat, drink, chill and drink some more. Every morning I wake up tired, I go to bed tired and I go to work tired, busy doesn't come close to the way it gets around here this time of year. OH next wednesday just can't come quick enough for me....................5 days and counting.............

The Weather is Wonderful, and still no camera !!

The weather here these last few days has been so hot it's sometimes difficult to remember we are actually on the North East Coast of Scotland overlooking the cold North Sea.

This weather is quite unusual for this area, it's a bit of a mini heat wave but nowhere near as hot as it has been in other places. I spent a whole hour one morning watching a Heron at the waters edge but unfortunatly........with only my mobile you can't see it.

I love the summer, I love the sound of the birds singing, the feel of the warm breeze on the skin, the sight of the grasses swaying and walking along the beach at low tide. There has been plenty of that these last few days and the only little blip on my happiness is my lack of a decent camera.

Even that I am getting used too, I’m learning to make do with my poor quality mobile phone and becoming very thankful for the camera that went every where with me over this last year. I have a good stock of decent shots that will take me forever to sort, edit and file, I’m trying to be very positive about this and be thankful for the year I spent with my camera rather than mourn the loss of it now.
I’ve started walking the cliffs again, I don’t go there in the winter, it can get quite dangerous in the bad weather but at the moment it's a wonderful place to be. Shear Red Sandstone cliffs dropping into a swirling foamy sea, all to the ever present din of the squawking sea gulls.
For the first time this year I’ve spent time on the beach with the grandchildren.

 I’ve walked along the cliff path counting the number of wild flowers in bloom,

 I’ve collected pebbles from the beach. They were picked out of rock pools and while wet, they had vivid colours, stripes and patterns.

 Once they dried out the colours dulled, but all it takes to bring back the colour is a quick splash of water.
I have my daughters dog for the week while she is in Spain and every day I've come home from work and walked the dog along the park overlooking the beach. Today it was so hot I stayed indoors untill almost 7pm but still  there was a heat haze over every thing. Then the haare  (sea mist) came in from the sea and swirled around over the  beach and fields like a rapidly moving fuzzy pale shadow.

 It is fascinating to watch and I tried to take a photo of it with my mobile phone, unfortunately you can’t see the full glory of the Haare with my little mobile.

 It is now well past midnight and the house is hot. My windows are all open but the air is still and heavy, soon I will have to try to ignore the heat and sleep. Work again tomorrow and I think it’s going to be just as hot tomorrow as it has been today.