"Somewhere in the Cuillin" 16x20 oil

Is this a place you can hike to? Maybe.

“Somewhere in the Cuillin” 16x20 oil/canvas - AVAILABLE

In my ongoing quest to capture something of the soul of Scotland, I recently completed my latest studio painting, "Somewhere in the Cuillin," a 16x20 oil painting based on photo and sketch references from my 2018 trip.

The Isle of Skye's legendary Cuillin mountain range is named, some say, for the Celtic warrior Cuhullin who trained there. It features two distinct sections: the Red Cuillin with its rounded, granite hills, and the Black Cuillin, a collection of snag-toothed, basaltic peaks. Trina and I hiked at the foot of the Black Cuillin in Sligachan on a cold, windy day. I took shelter from the gusts under a stone bridge to sketch the mountains as low clouds raced between the peaks, making them a challenge.

"Somewhere in the Cuillin" doesn't depict any particular spot you can hike to. Instead, it is an amalgam; one of the privileges of being an artist is to cut-and-paste the landscape to enhance an idea. If some day you are out hiking in the Cuillin and you wander across this exact scene, I'd like to know!

By the way, in case you haven't yet heard, we are heading back to Scotland this September for an entire month. My goal is to gather enough reference material in the way of sketches and photos to continue my series of Scottish paintings and to put it all into a book with a personal narrative. I'm hoping you'll want to support me in this trip. In exchange for your support, you can get either a 6x8 oil painting, nicely framed, or a painting plus a signed copy of my book! For details, please check out this link.

Some design possibilities. For studio paintings, I like to create a few design possibilities, and then have my social followers vote on them. Most voted on “B.”

Once I decided on a design, I made this small 6x8 oil study on Multimedia Artboard. The colors in the final painting ended up a bit different to this, though. The only excuse I can give is that painting is a journey, and sometimes we take a different route and end up at a different destination.

Studio setup for the painting

Close-up of my easel. You can see my reference material clipped to the right.

The final painting again. By the way, in a future post, paid subscribers will be able to see how I made some adjustments in the painting with glazing.