Here’s a view from the ship”Lady of Avenel”. She which was at the Dunstaffnage Marina, Oban, at the time. This is a quick sketch done on thin “Amatruda” watercolour paper, sent as a postcard. It is the view looking north, towards Fort William. See the rain clouds coming!
Oban is on the West Coast of ScotlanLady of Avenel was at Dunstaffnage Marina
Here’s a quick sketch of the marina.
Quick sketch on a 6″ x 4″ postcard
Later I visited the lovely island of Kerrera.
A5 Amatruda watercolour paper.
These landscapes are so inspiring! I’ll be leading a “Sketch and Sail” adventure on the Lady of Avenel in October 2024, together with Alice Angus. We’ll start and finish in Oban. Would you like to join us? Have a look at this page and get in touch!
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I’m just back from a “Sketch and Sail” adventure on the Lady of Avenel, a square rigged brigantine. I was one of the art tutors, together with Claudia Myatt. We spent a week sailing around the Inner Hebrides with a group of other sketchers: sketching the boat, the sea and the landscapes. The drawings which follow are ones I made. Participants’ drawings, with permission and attribution, will appear on the Lady of Avenel website.
Lady of Avenel Saloon “Welcome to Sketch and Sail”Looking at islandsLandscape on MullA sketch near LismoreWorkshop participants in action on the table inside the Lady of Avenel
This was September in Scotland. There was wind and rain. Two storms passed over: “Nigel” and “Agnes”. But somehow, in between it all, we all did a lot of sketching. Our Skipper, Stefan Fritz, was skilled at finding sheltered anchorages. Claudia and I worked with him to plan the days so there was always something interesting to sketch.
There were days when we went ashore. Here are the boats at Salen on the Isle of Mull. Two hulks of fishing boats are in their final resting place on the beach. They lean on each other. Their grand forms are still majestic, and their paint has now flaked to reveal multi-coloured undercoats and timbers.
Boats at Salen. 25th September 2023, A5 postcard.
We visited Castle Duart. Some people went inside, others sat outside on the grass and had a go at sketching the castle’s complicated shape.
Castle Duart (and tourist), 28th September 2023
Those chimneys had multiple points, like crowns. One of the participants did a careful study of them. In the grounds of the castle there were porcini mushrooms. These were confidently identified by one of our number, a horticulture expert. We left the mushrooms exactly where they were. We didn’t touch them or eat them. But we did draw them. My drawing does not give the scale: they were about 3 inches across.
We sketched the land from the sea.
From Fishnish, near isle of MullNear Tobermory, Isle of MullLeaving LismoreIsle of Kerrera, East side
There were inspiring atmospheric effects. Here is a glimpse of the sun near the isle of Lismore.
On the way to Port Ramsay, Isle of Lismore. 28th September 2023
That neat round sun is made using a drop of melted candlewax from a nightlight which a member of the crew, Nessie, found for me. Nessie, a.k.a Carol Anderson, is an astonishing fiddle player. She played tunes for us on some evenings. We were all impressed by her skill. She maintained several melodies at once, all on just one fiddle. Other people played the harp and the recorder, and we sang sea shanties: half-remembered but rendered with gusto, and accompanied by assorted musical instruments and improvised percussion.
Nessie was our cook for this expedition. We also had a mate, the mate’s mate, and a ship hand, to help the skipper manage the boat. They were out there even in the pouring rain, getting us to the next safe harbour, piloting us past landmarks and between islands, and managing the engine and sails. Thanks to this crew, we had a productive and inspiring voyage: always something to see or do. The sails are beautiful, although quite hard to sketch.
Sketching on the move.
Some people took time off sketching to enjoy working the boat: hauling on ropes or taking the wheel. A brave few elected to climb the rigging. One person even did a sketch from up there.
In the intervals between other activities, and when it rained, Claudia and I ran various workshops, so that people could learn new techniques, share skills, or get started: depending on skill level.
Making black and greyLine workshop: the teapotColour mixingColour mixing
The expedition was great fun, and highly productive. Sketchbooks were filled, postcards painted and sent, maps examined and weather apps compared.
We intend to run it again in 2024 and 2025. If you’re tempted to come, you can register your interest now by contacting me, or Claudia Myatt, or the Lady of Avenel direct. You don’t need any experience of sketching or sailing!
Here’s a page-turn of my sketchbook (about a minute, silent video). The sketchbook is from JP Purcell, A5, watercolour paper 300gsm. I use Daniel Smith watercolours: you can see the colour palette at the beginning of the video. (The video plays on tablets and desktops. It does not play on email or on mobile phones. Try looking at this post via the web on this link)
The Lady of Avenel is an 102ft square rigged brigantine. She was on the East coast of Scotland, and needed to be on the West Coast. So a group of us assembled to take her through the Caledonian Canal, from the North Sea to the Atlantic. This whole journey was about 190km or 120miles. I…
I took my sketching things on a swimming expedition to the Outer Hebrides with Swimtrek. We were on the wonderful Lady of Avenel 102ft square rigged brigantine. We started in Oban. It was raining when I drew this picture, as you can see from the way the pen has drifted a bit, round the chimneys.…
The Lady of Avenel is an 102ft square rigged brigantine, currently based near Oban, on the west coast of Scotland. Every year the Lady of Avenel needs a refit to prepare her for her working season. This year I went up there to join the working party for the refit. I travelled by overnight train…
Here is Lady of Avenel, 102ft Brigantine. This was the third of three sketches. Here are the first two. I have drawn Lady of Avenel previously: Outer Hebrides 2017 See also these pages for pictures of and from Lady of Avenel: Outer Hebrides 2017 Outer Hebrides 2016 Sketch notes from maritime Holland
Here is the Lady of Avenel in aquatint. Here is the hard ground, before the aquatint went on: To help with the aquatint, I made a small test plate. It seemed a pity to leave it blank, so I put some sea life: Lady of Avenel is an 102ft brigantine square rigger. I sailed on…
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In the Swiss hotel there was much talk about the wind turbines. They are being constructed on a nearby hill. I could see them from a bench by the church.
Wind turbines above Sainte-Croix, Vaud 6:30pm, 16th August 2023. A5 Arches 300gsm NOT
People said, you should go up there and see them, you can get very close. So on Sunday afternoon, we visited the construction site. There are information placards and a visitor car-park. Plenty of local people were up there viewing the machinery. The general atmosphere was one of curiosity and admiration.
It was a Sunday afternoon family outing: Let’s go and see the wind turbine construction site…
The blades are huge. 43 m.
The enormous blades, ready to raise.The blades have serrated trailing edges
As a British person, I was surprised at the openness. As it was the weekend, the site had no workers. The fascinating machinery was separated from us by some notional fences. It was supervised only by a few CCTV cameras on a stand. Perhaps there were also hidden ones. As you see from the photos, we could get close, and walk freely around the crane. My Swiss companion was surprised at my surprise.
It was also remarkable how positive the feeling was amongst the sightseers. A local person said that in the past they had been opposed to the turbines, but now that construction was started, they could see how clean and organised it was. “It’s better than a nuclear power station!” they observed. There’s no immediate benefit for the local people: they do not get a reduction on their bills. “But it’s better for everyone.” I was told.
“Here we are building the first Wind Turbine park in the Canton of Vaud”. Note the line of cars to the right: local people have come to visit the construction site.
The next day, Monday, my host came rushing up to me as I returned from a walk. “Quick, look! They are raising…”. We found a vantage point. There, on the distant hill, the blades were being raised up the mast by the crane. They moved very slowly, but definitely, “like the hands of a watch” said my host. For that Swiss person, this engineering feat had become a source of local pride.
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Fair Isle is a small island some 28 miles south of Shetland, between Orkney and Shetland. It is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide.
Map (c) Open Street Map contributorsFair Isle: 3 miles long and 1 mile wide Map (c) Open Street Map contributors
I travelled there by the boat “Good Shepherd IV”.
The ferry leaves from the pier at Grutness which is close to Sumburgh airport at the southern tip of Shetland mainland.
I wait at Grutness, in the fogThe Good Shepherd arrives at the Grutness PierThe Good Shepherd unloads at the pier.Fair Isle emerges from the clouds
Fair Isle has two lighthouses: the North Lighthouse and the South Lighthouse. I sketched the South Lighthouse:
The postmaster at the Fair Isle Post Office kindly put their special postmark on my sketch for me.
Both lighthouses were designed by David A Stevenson and built in 1892. Both are still functional, now automated. The South Lighthouse light is “Fl (4) W 30 seconds” : a group of 4 flashes of white light every 30 seconds. The North Lighthouse flashes white twice every 30 seconds.
Here is a view of the cliffs called Mathers Head. It’s the view from the same spot where sketched the South Lighthouse, but looking out towards the west.
I was staying at “The Auld Haa” which is just a few hundred yards from the lighthouse. When I returned from drawing this scene, Tommy, who runs the guest house, called out, “Come and choose a fish!”. There was me and two other women staying at the guest house at that point. Bemused, we all made our way round the side of the house to find a cheerful fisherman standing by his car trailer on the small road. The trailer was laden with fish. The fish were in buckets. There were cod about two feet long, and mackerel, and a whole bucket of lobsters. The fisherman was Stephen, who I recognised as one of the ferry crew.
With suggestions and promptings from his three guests, Tommy made his selections. I was keen on the mackerel. Others opted for white fish. Tommy carried the bucket back to the house.
After this excitement I was resting on the bench outside the house when Tommy called out to me, “Would you like to do a painting of the mackerel?”.
Yes, I would like to do a painting of the mackerel, even though I was tired, even though it was evening, even though I’d already done a long walk, a dip in a rockpool, and several paintings of headlands. How often do you get invited to paint a mackerel? Seize the moment. Tommy brought out the mackerel on a plate, and I settled down to drew, while the hens scraped around on the grass, and small birds scuttled in the hedge.
On another day I sketched the huge headland called “Sheep Rock”.
Postcard drawing of the Sheep Rock.Drawing in the sketchbook.Sketching location. This wasn’t such a great place to sketch: my paintbrush rolled down in amongst those planks and I retrieved it only with difficulty.Blue arrow shows the sightline of the sketch. Circle shows where I was standing. I sketched a postcard and also did same view in my sketchbook: working on two drawings at once.
Here is the spectacular rock arch on South Beach, which is near the Auld Haa.
I was only on Fair Isle for three days. It’s an extraordinary place. Here was my final view of the island as I left on the tiny plane. The small square is the North Lighthouse, high up on its cliff.
View from the window of the plane: North Lighthouse.
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As you see, it shows a seabird, probably a fulmar, soaring over the coast, with the green hills beyond, and a characteristic Shetland fence. The fine blue sky is made from rope waste found on the beach.
I managed to arrange for the seabird to move, sliding along a fine thread, and hover above the background.
This went through the international post. I don’t yet know if it arrived…..
Here are some other collage postcards I have made over the years. It’s good fun!
I made a postcard for friends in Basel. It shows the insect life in Crete. Here are some details, and the work under construction. The idea was that the flies…
Another collage postcard. I posted this one in London 18th May. It looks a bit crinkled because the cardboard was damp with PVA glue, and then dried. The white shape on the…
Here is a postcard collage I sent to my friends in another city. It is inspired by the website: sendmeapostcart.com, and shows the connections we make, the lines which bind us, the…
I made a collage postcard inspired by “the Blue Planet” series on BBC2. This is the cuttlefish. The sea bed is made of breakfast cereal, and the seaweed is strands of unraveled…
Here is a collage made for friends in Switzerland. I posted it at the Post Office in Kalami on 8th May. The official there did not seem to be concentrating very hard.…
Here is a postcard from indoors: It shows a corner of the flat. You see the sun outside, and birds, and the city. You see parks, rivers and the great outdoors. But…
Here are some of the collage postcards I have made. The constraints I set myself are: the postcard must go in the post by itself: no envelope it is made of found…
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While I was drawing this picture, I was startled by a loud sneeze. Since I was totally alone on the hillside, it was uncanny. Then I realised that the sneeze came from across the water, from the seal colony at the base of the dark rocks.
Across the seal lagoon, Littlure
Soon several seals were in the water, swimming over to see what I was doing. They stayed a little offshore, bobbing about. Seals look into your eyes, as dogs do, and seem to want to communicate. They said “who are you?” and “come and play!”. They seemed disappointed when I walked off, without having accepted their invitation to swim with them in their chilly waters.
There are also seals on the beach where a stream from the Loch of Quinnigeo arrives at the sea. Nettles grow, sheltered from the wind by the deep ravine, and watered by the freshwater stream. I’ve swum there, and sketched the cliffs.
Nettle beach cliffs, July 2023
The loch of Quinnigeo is surrounded by smooth hills.
I’ve seen swans on the loch (off the picture to the right). They are not the ordinary urban type of swans I’ve seen in parks, which are called mute swans. Mute swans have pink beaks and these ones had yellow beaks. They drifted calmly in the middle of the loch with their cygnet, honking in a conversational kind of a way. Whooper swans or Bewicks? I couldn’t distinguish at that distance.
Here is another attempt to show the solid landscape round the loch and the way the hill casts darkness onto the still water.
Loch of Quinnigeo, Littlure, near Walls, Shetland
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This sketchbook was brilliant because it could fold back onto itself, and I could hold it with one hand.
I often worked on two sketches at once. I worked on a drawing on a sheet, alongside the drawing in the sketchbook. One drawing dried while I worked on the other one. Work does not dry quickly in Shetland: there’s a dampness in the air.
Working on two drawings at once. Top left: a drawing on a single sheet of A5, fastened to a card. Bottom left: Sketchbook. Bottom right: Palette by David Cooper, Classic Paintboxes.
Here are drawings in Aberdeen:
From Aberdeen I take the overnight ferry to Lerwick in Shetland Mainland. Shetland is 100 miles off the north coast of Scotland.
The ferry from Aberdeen takes about 12 hours and travels 200 miles.
I stay on the West side of Shetland. There are smooth hills, few trees and usually a view of water.
Here is a magical place: high up on cliffs near the sea at Littlure is the Barni Loch. My drawing is inspired by the work of Peter Davis an artist based in the Shetland Islands.
Barni Loch, Littlure, 25th July 2023, A5 in sketchbook.
A bit further on is Footabrough.
Footabrough, in the style of Peter Davis. A5 on watercolour paper.
During this walk, the island of Foula floats on the horizon, sometimes visible, sometimes not.
Foula is 20 miles away from the Shetland Mainland.
I was staying at Burrastow. There is a table by the beach.
Burrastow House, Walls Shetland, view from the beach
Here is a view of the Coastguard Station and Tynemouth Priory, seen from across King Edwards Bay, on the North-east coast of England.
Tynemouth Coastguard Station and Tynemouth Priory, 10″ x 7″ Sketched 8th April 2023 in sketchbook 13
They both are, in their own ways, continuations of the cliffs below. The coastguard station with its massive concrete architecture, the priory with its soaring stone columns. And as if to emphasize how transitory are our human constructions: both are now disused, at least for their original functions.
Parts of the original priory which still survive are the West side of the nave, from the 12th century. “..in January 1539 the priory fell victim to the nationwide Dissolution of the Monasteries” says the English Heritage website. The headland then became a military fortification in wars which followed, right up to the 1939-45 conflict, where guns were stationed there. Some of the gun emplacements remain. It is now a tourist attraction managed by English Heritage.
Much less information is available about the Coastguard Station. It was opened in 1980 and closed in 2001, according to a BBC article of 2001. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1567195.stm). It is a remarkably solid building in a first class location. Why has nobody converted it into a splendid home, guest house, restaurant, art gallery or place of worship?
While I was sketching, a elderly woman passed by on the path and admired the sketch. She said she was surprised more people weren’t sketching there: it was a splendid view. I agreed, and didn’t point out that it was also windy and very cold. I think such an observation would have revealed me as a soft southerner. She said she didn’t sketch, but she did other things. Tap dancing, she said.
This is as far as I got before I became too cold to continue.I finished the picture indoors.Tynemouth, in England’s North East.
I sketched the Coastguard Station in 2017:
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Sketching on the beach out of the wind, I am fascinated by the regular angles in which the rock cleaves.
Beach on the West Side, 27th June 2022, 1pm
The angle of the distant cliffs echoes the slope of the nearby rocks.
The forms of cliffs and rocks
Sketching in the hills, islands and hills are of the same form.
From the hill above BurrastowThe Footabrough ValleySketching on the way to the Virda StaneSketching the Footabrough Valley, 5th July 2022 (note the gloves!)
Here’s a sketch in my small sketchbook. The green overlaid pattern is a print, made in advance.
Hills near Footabrough, 3 July 2022
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Jane Sketching 