Scottish Landscape Painters

Four third year pupils made a study of Scottish landscape painters. They chose two artists each, carried out some research into their lives and background, examined their working methods and analysed selected examples of their paintings.

Research and scripts by

Ainslie MacKenzie Gemma McLean Eilidh MacLennan Emma Morrison Joan Eardley

Joan Eardley was born on the 18th May in 1921 and as a young girl, in 1929, was badly affected by the suicide of her father. She lived in London, where she attended Goldsmith’s College of Art. After this, she moved to Glasgow, and went to the Art School there. At this time she won scholarships to travel and work in Italy and France and later attended Jordanhill College of Education where she trained to be a teacher. For much of her life, Joan Eardley suffered from depression and died young on the 16th August, 1963.

‘Cottages, Dark Sky’ ‘Snow’

‘Cottages, Dark Sky’ is a landscape painting of Cattaline, on the north east coast of Scotland, where Eardley lived for some time. It is almost square in shape and the point of interest is a couple of cottages to the left of the composition. The viewer’s eye is drawn to the cottages because, apart from some fences, the rest of the painting is fairly bare and empty.

There seems to be a yellow theme to the painting, and the grey colour of the sky contrasts with the strong yellows of the land and the hillside. The style of painting is very free and the brushwork can easily be seen, especially on the hill. Despite the yellow, which is usually a happy colour, the painting conveys a bleak atmosphere, possibly because of the expansive, stormy sky with grey amongst the yellows.

‘Snow’ is another landscape in a square format. A row of small cottages slants down to the right, cutting the composition in two. The roofs form a dark line in the distance, which draws the eye from the rough, snowy ground in the front. The brushwork is again, very free and the atmosphere is one of anger due to the redness in the sky and the overall darkness of the picture. Horatio McCulloch

Horatio McCulloch was a Scottish landscape artist. He was born in 1806 in Glasgow and died in 1867 in Edinburgh aged 61. He is best known for his close study of nature in his romantic highland landscape paintings. He introduced the Victorian style seen in a lot of Scottish paintings of the period.

‘On the Banks of Loch Lomond’

‘On the Banks of Loch Lomond’ was painted in oil on canvas in 1861. The painting is in landscape format and shows a croft house in the middle ground to the right of the composition, nestled into the hillside, beside a river and some trees. In the background are distant mountains. The focal point is to the right of the painting where the majority of interest lies and the viewer’s eye is led there by the little river, which starts in the foreground of the painting. The left side of the painting has less features and this creates some balance.

The colours in this painting are all relatively subtle. There is use of both secondary and tertiary colours, but none create much contrast apart from the light sky and large green tree, which includes a lot of shadow. Green and yellow feature a lot in the foreground, while there are more browns and duller greens in the middle and background.

The landscape is well lit by natural light and because the composition is quite open, there is not a lot shadow or deep tone in the grass or on the hills. This gives a natural and fresh appearance instead.

Although this painting is in oils, it has the soft feeling of a watercolour, with little indication of brushwork. The atmosphere is serene and calm, mainly due to the colour scheme and the natural ambience of the subject matter. It is relaxing - placid and at peace. Ian Nelson

Ian Nelson has lived in Wester Ross for 21 years and originally came from the English Lake District. Ian trained as an architect at Durham University and practised until 1986. During this time he attended courses at the local College of Art in Middlesbrough because he always had a strong urge to paint. He was attracted to the Scottish Highlands after painting the popular views of the Lake District that have been painted many times before.

‘Across the Fain’

One lovely painting of Ian Nelson's is called ‘Across the Fain’. It is a watercolour. It is a wide, panoramic scene, which features the gable end of a bothy to the right, with a wide- open space to the left and distant mountains in the background. A road coming from the bottom left corner, leads the eye towards the mountains and creates space and depth in the painting. Tertiary colours are used throughout with brownish greens in the foreground and bluish purples for the distant hills.

The artist has not painted in detail but the impression of the different grasslands is given with broad, loose brush strokes of watery paint. The only detailed work included is shown on the focal point, the gable end of the house.

The atmosphere of ‘Across the Fain’ is cold and autumnal. The painting feels lonely and quiet as evening settles in. James McLachlan Nairn

James Nairn was an artist who painted in Glasgow around the 1880s to 1890s. He was born in Dunbartonshire on the 18th November 1859 and was one of seven children. His father, Archibald Nairn, was a builder and property valuer and James was the only member of his family to pursue an artistic career. He went to school in Glasgow in 1867 and was later apprenticed as a draughtsman in an architect’s office. He also studied at the Glasgow School of Art for four years before enrolling as a student at the Academie Julien in Paris. As a young artist, he became an established member of the ‘Glasgow Boys’, (a group of Scottish artists interested in Impressionism) and exhibited work at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Nairn emigrated to New Zealand in 1890, on accord of poor health, and stayed in both Dunedin and Wellington. He lived with his father, supporting himself by drawing cartoons and painting. He was later appointed to teach still life painting and life drawing at Wellington Technical School. He married and had a family but ill health was a continuing problem and he died on the 22nd of February 1904.

‘Auchenhew’ ‘View of Corrie’

‘Auchenhew’ was painted in oils while in Arran in 1886. It is in landscape format, and features a couple of small white houses to the left of the painting. It is either set at dusk or dawn, as the colours seem subdued. The houses, along with some fences and a small croft, create a busy area in the composition but to the right this is balanced by a flat, calm area of sea and sky with a low sun. In the foreground there is a wide field, with just some rocks and grassy tufts. In ‘Auchenhew’, the colours are mainly tertiary and this gives a rather dull feel. It has a lot of depth but is brightened by the white of the house. Nairn used cool colours throughout, working in a realistic style with very small detailed brush strokes.

‘View of Corrie’ was painted a year later and also features a group of white houses. But in this composition, the focal point is the woman in the foreground and the three boats sitting out on dry land. This makes a busy scene but the horizon is quite low and the plain sky balances the arrangement. In this painting the colours are again mostly tertiary but with some stronger secondary colours coming through too. This makes the painting look and feel a lot brighter. Nairn used his tight and smooth brushwork with warmer colours and stronger tone to make a happier atmosphere in this painting. Mike Healey

Mike Healey was born in Brazil in 1951. He studied at Kiel School and later at Glasgow School of Art. He won the Haldane and Leverhulme Travelling Scholarships, which let him study and travel a lot in the USA. In the 1980s he became a senior lecturer at Glasgow School of Art and went on to become Head of the School of Design and Applied Arts until 1997. He now divides his time between his Scottish art studio, painting trips and teaching at Lincoln University, where he was awarded a professional chair in Art and Design in 2003. He still shows his work widely in Scotland, London, New York, Bermuda and Japan. Most of this is painted in the Highlands and Islands.

‘Isle of Rhum from Arisaig’ ‘Sunshine and Snow’

‘Isle of Rhum from Arisaig’ is painted in oils and has a landscape format. It is a painting of a small cottage with the Isle of Rhum in the background. In the foreground there is a single-track road and fence, which lead the viewer’s eye into the two small houses in the middle ground. The shoreline and some trees can be seen to the right. In the background there is the Isle of Rhum, the sea and the sky. It is a distant landscape with all the main features quite far away. It has a very open feeling with no busy areas in the whole scene. The composition is made up of three horizontal bands - the sky, the sea and the land. The colours are quite strong with blues in the sky and the sea and vivid greens with touches of red around the houses, bringing the foreground forward.

‘Sunshine and Snow’ has a very different composition with a square format. There is a large bush quite centrally in the foreground with a fence running out from it in both directions. Behind this is an open, flat area of land covered in snow and, in the distance, there are a few farmhouses, some trees and a clear sky. Like the last painting, this composition is made up of horizontal bands, but this time the horizon is quite high, which creates quite a slightly crowded feeling. The centre of interest is the dark coloured bush although the farmhouses also draw the viewer’s eye to the distance. Blue is the dominant colour although some orangey browns in the buildings are picked up again by some grasses in the foreground, and this creates some contrast. Both of these paintings have bright colours and quite strong shadows. The painting style is realistic but it is not too detailed or neat and has strong rough brush strokes. Both paintings have a very bright and happy atmosphere and feel like summer even though one of them is set in the winter! The world looks brighter and more colourful because Healey paints with such strong colours. John Duncan Fergusson

J. D. Fergusson was born in Leith in 1874. He had no formal training in Art but, with close friends, Hunter, Peploe and Cadell, formed the famous ‘Scottish Colourists’, a group of painters who were predominantly interested in the use of colour and who developed in parallel to the French Impressionists.

Fergusson visited Paris a lot before moving there in 1906. He married a dancer, Margaret Morris, and they lived together in Glasgow for the last twenty years of his life. Fergusson died in 1961. His landscape paintings reflect his life in both France and Scotland.

‘The Ha’ Craig’ ‘A Puff of Smoke Near Milngavie’

‘The Ha’ Craig’ was painted in 1900. It is in a square format and shows two large houses, facing the sea and backed by a tall, steep cliff. The houses, and a wall running in front of them, are light and bright in colour and stand out in stark contrast to the dark colours of the cliff behind. The sky above and the sea in the foreground are painted in much less detail and in more watery colours. This makes the viewer focus on the houses. The atmosphere is calm and relaxed because of the loose brushwork, the pastel colours of the water and sky and the hazy, summery figures in the foreground.

‘A Puff of Smoke Near Milngavie’ is also in a square format. Its focal point is a cluster of houses on the right hand side. Fergusson leads the eye to this point with a road and two lines of tree beside it. Green is the dominant colour, with a wide variety of strong and warm shades. The style of painting is a little abstract and lacks any real detail. The hills in the distance and the overhanging branch in the front are represented by dashes and patches of colour and there is very little depth to the painting. However, the strong blue of the sky and the yellowy greens convey the happy atmosphere of the picturesque landscape and village. James McIntosh Patrick

James McIntosh Patrick was born in Dundee on the 4th of February 1907. His father and brother were architects and James showed an interest in art from an early age. By his teenage years James had become better than his father and brother and was often found drawing perspectives for the firm's new projects. He was enrolled in the School of Art in Glasgow in 1924. He began working as an etcher, but in the 1930's turned to oils and watercolours. James McIntosh Patrick was awarded a CBE in 1987 and died on 7th of April 1998.

‘Sidlaw Village, Winter’ ‘The Ettrick Shepherd’

‘Sidlaw Village, Winter’ is an oil painting produced in 1936. It is a happy scene of children sledging down a snow-covered road towards a village. The artist is looking directly down the road with a very detailed wall on each side and trees down the right. These features lead the eye to the busy centre of the painting where the village sits amongst flat snowy fields that lead to mountains in the far distance.

The painting contains a lot of whites because of the snow. The trees, hedges, walls and buildings are in neutral greys and browns but there are touches of brighter colours in the children's clothes. The style of painting is very detailed, both in the foreground and the distance and the atmosphere of ‘Sidlaw Village, Winter’ is happy and fun because the artist draws the eye and makes a feature of the children sledging amongst the serious attention to detail in the countryside.

‘The Ettrick Shepherd’ was painted in oil a year later. The composition is closer to the viewer and features an old stone farmyard with a shepherd and some sheep and hens. This is another painting with a lot of snow-covered mountains and many trees.

Although there are many neutral, tertiary colours here, the effect is warmer with stronger yellows and browns in the hay in the barn and on the sides of some buildings. The style again is very neat and precise with lots of detail in all areas.

Despite the slightly brighter colours, ‘The Ettrick Shepherd’ himself has a feeling of being a bit fed up and cold. The dark skies threaten more snow and he has a hard day ahead with his scattered sheep. John Laurie Morrison

John Laurie Morrison, better known as ‘Jolomo’, is a very popular contemporary Scottish painter. He was born in 1948 in Maryhill, Glasgow. He studied painting, textiles and printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art between 1967 and 1971, followed by a Post Graduate Study in 1972. He is best known for his landscape studies of traditional croft houses on the mainland and the islands of Argyllshire. He has an entirely different approach to Scottish landscape painting, using bold, primary colours with blue particularly as a ‘key’ colour. His style has influenced a great many painters, amateur and professional alike.

‘Moonrise, Isle of Tiree’

‘Moonrise. Isle of Tiree’ was painted in 2004 and is typical of Jolomo’s landscape paintings. It features a small white house in a field, set against a deep blue sky, with a moon, low and large. The painting is in a square format and the landscape itself is close- up and immediate. The house is centred and quite large in the composition, making it the focal point of the painting. There is a busy, overgrown field in the foreground and this, with the detail on the house, is balanced by the plain, blue sky. The horizon is low and the sky comes more than half way down the picture.

The colour theme is the most striking feature of the painting and is made up mainly of bright primary colours. The secondary colour green can be seen in the grassy field and orange touches can be seen in the red roof, which contrasts greatly against the turquoise blue sky. The viewer’s eye is drawn mostly to the strong yellow in the field, which is broken by dashes of pink and green and again, balanced by the smooth, blue sky. This powerful colour in the grass draws the viewer in and makes the experience of viewing the painting stronger.

The lighting in the painting appears rather artificial and does not seem to come from the moon. The lightest part seems to be on the gable end of the house, facing the viewer, and away from the moon. It shines a bright white. The style of painting is realistic, although the brushwork is broad and free, with texture on the sides of the house and dots and dashes to show the overgrown grass in the foreground. This works well with the bright, exaggerated colours. The atmosphere achieved in this painting is both happy and serene. The bright colours make a cheerful feeling but the cool moon in the sky adds a calm and content mood.