Just before the first COVID-19 lockdown, we took ownership of a 7-year-old Border Terrier called Stanley. As we entered lockdown, my daily walks with Stanley into the Pentland Hills became an essential activity of body and mind. The Pentland Hills are a stone’s throw from our house and week-by-week we got more ambitious on which routes to take and how high to climb and meander.
In early summer 2020, I decided to record our daily walks as part of the national 100 Days Project, designed to encourage anyone to do something creative each day.
My brief to myself was this;
- Prepare 100 sheets of A5 paper with random painted acrylic washes
- Each morning – make one small ten-minute drawing in pencil directly from a location on the walk on the prepared paper.
- Each afternoon, (usually after studio painting session) use whatever mixed oil colours I had left over on my palette and use them to paint from memory over the drawing.
There was no plan to include Stanley in the studies – he was always very content to sit and look out while I did my drawing – but eventually worked his way into the pictures.
The 100 works are due to be shown at the Open Eye Gallery at some point in 2021. Dates to be confirmed.
