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| Old Man of Hoy 18x22 Oil/Cold Wax Available |
We haven't had much snow this winter, but what we have had is sticking around. It's slow to melt. And when it does melt, it makes mud. The dirt road up the mesa behind us, where I like to walk to clear my mind, has been deep in mud for weeks now. A recent warm spell has dried it up a little, but it's still long stretches of mud bracketed by shorter stretches of dry. Now on my walks, at the end of a dry stretch, I leave the road and step carefully through the cacti and sandstone outcrops that line it. Although the area off the road is also muddy, little clumps of bunch grass serve as stepping stones. The clumps sit a few inches above mud level, and if I'm careful, I can carry on, unsullied.
The mud has hindered my plein air painting. So, I've been doing more studio work this winter. With another trip to Scotland coming up in June, I've been revisiting in my mind our trip to Orkney two years ago. This week, I made a painting of the Old Man of Hoy, a well-known sea stack just off the island of Hoy.
I first caught a glimpse of the Old Man from the ferry that runs from Thurso, in the north of Scotland, to Stromness on Orkney's “Mainland.” As we rounded the towering cliffs of the southern tip of Hoy, the Old Man suddenly came into view. It truly does have the proportions of a human, although on a gargantuan scale. Nearly 450 feet tall, it is one of the tallest sea stacks in England. Composed of layers of red sandstone, it is separated from the main cliff of Hoy by a 200-foot gap. Although it looks ancient—you might think it dates back to the prehistoric times of the Picts—it came into being some time after 1750. Experts say it may not last much longer because of the fierceness of the sea and the softness of the stone. Here's how it looked in 1817, when it had two legs, in a painting by the artist William Daniell:
And here's how it looks today. Once we got to Orkney, we took a day trip to Hoy, where we took the long hike out to the cliff that overlooks the Old Man. It was a blustery day, churning with mizzle, and my old Gore-Tex coat finally breathed its last and I got soaked. But the view! I teetered right on the edge with the wind snatching at my coat as I peered across the gap at the Old Man.
For my painting, I decided first to sketch out a number of possibilities in pencil. I offered these up to my followers on Facebook and Instagram and asked them to vote for one. (I here now apologize to them, as I didn't use their choice.) Next, because cool colors were going to dominate in the painting, I toned my 18x22 panel with Gamblin's Permanent Orange to add a warm note. I completed the painting with my current palette of three secondary colors—Permanent Orange, Dioxazine Purple, Phthalo Green—and lots of Gamblin Portland Grey. I also used Gamblin's Cold Wax Medium to create an impasto and add translucency.
This painting is not meant to be a photographic representation of the Old Man. I took liberties with the scene. Among them, I lowered the cliff on the left to make the Old Man rise taller; pushed the saturation of the colors; and abstracted the foreground. The painting is more about feeling and texture.
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| Design sketches |
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| 18x22 panel toned with Gamblin's Permanent Orange, plus the design transfer |
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| Block-in. I ultimately eliminated that sunlit green patch on the cliff bottom. |
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| Old Man of Hoy 18x22 Oil/Cold Wax Available |
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| Close-up of texture |
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| Close-up of texture |
