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| Miners Track, East Lancashire 76cmx76cm Acrylic-oil on canvas |
Miners track, East Lancashire Painting by Rob Miller RSA
Knoydart Scottish Highlands, Paintings by Rob Miller RSA
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| Luinne Bheinne Knoydart 23cmx15cm Mixed media |
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| Coire Dhorrcail Knoydart 23cmx15cm Mixed media |
I first came across Knoydart when I did a solo trip for the log book of my Mountain Leadership Certificate way back in the1980's. Its a large, wild and wonderful place to explore, be mindfull of the becks they quickly become raging Rivers when its rains up stream.
"This area is renowned on the west coast for the dramatic and remote mountain scenery. The region is a peninsula opposite the southern end of Skye formed by the long sea lochs of Loch Hourn to the north and Loch Nevis to the south. The region is truely remote with no road access at all into the central or western areas - quite unique on the entire Scottish coastline. There are excellant paths across the region and with three Munros nestling in the centre, Knoydart is a major attraction for those after some peace and quiet, and dramatic sceneryThe nearest road access is to Kinloch Hourn, along the shores of Loch Quoich, or along Loch Arkaig to Strathan. Both are long drives in and then require lengthy walks to gain the central regions - although the paths are generally very good. The only significant village in the region is Inverie on the shores of Loch Nevis. A ferry service runs here three days a week from Mallaig offering a most rewarding means of entry to the region. Link this service with a walk across the mountain valleys to a pre-arranged pick up at one of the road ends, or even over to the railway and you have one of the most spectacular mountain treks in Scotland. It has an unrivalled reputation. The only facilities are at Inverie - including pub, guest house, small camp site, shop. Bothies are available at Sourlies (Camusrory, head of Glen Nevis) and Barrisdale (Loch Hourn). The latter is near the approach paths to the areas Munros and is therefore very popular and often full. Good paths link key points in the region making use of the various passes and glens:" Excellent info on this and on other areas of Scotland by a family site Barbar SASA site
Belmont and Belthorn Lancashire Paintings by Rob Miller RSA
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| St Peter and Blue Lagoon, Belmont Ink, Pastel and watercolour |
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| Belthorn from acrioss the Grane Ink, pastel and watercolour |
Two moorland villages which owe their existence to the Cotton industry, in Belmont the lake was installed to provide water for the bleach mill, and the church was installed to provide a path way to heaven, over the moor in Belthorn the village sits high above the valley in fact its one of the highest lancashire villages. "In this era there was a thriving handloom industry evident by the style of the older cottages in the village. With the industrial revolution the main industry became coal and fire clay mining with many small drift mines being established at the foot of the escarpment and later, much larger and deeper shaft workings linking mines as far away as Oswaldtwistle. Despite this grim sounding industrial heritage there is little to see with most of the mine surface workings overgrown or leveled and returned to a natural state, grazed by sheep and cattle." Belthorn History society see Belthorn Village Society and cotten town history of mining in Blackburn
Trees and buildings 2 studies by Rob Miller RSA
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| The trees by the chapel charcoal on sandpaper 19cmx30cm |
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| Two trees hugging a barn Charcoal on sandpaper 19cmx30cm |
Holcombe, Lancashire Winter Painting by Rob Miller RSA
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| Holcombe Lancashire Winter Acrylic on canvas 50cmx50cm |
Holcombe Lancashire Winter, Walking damply down back from Hill End Farm below the Peel Tower, dark by 5.00pm, wet damp greys and blues, traffic calming, an owl hooting, an end to the rain, and now, the moons silver, slithering across the trees,
Painting notes
The greys in this Lancashire, mid winter painting were difficult to get to; I started the painting last winter and it had hung on the studio wall for months; a bit to blue in tone and to vibrant for a wild Lancashire winter night; Today I was working on a new painting, it was a painting that focused on an coal mine high above the East Lancashire valley a dark brooding scene; I had the steel grey earth colour I wanted fixed in my minds eye, but had a mental block about the mix I should use, to jog my mind on the grey I had to resort to my old sketch book where I faithfully mark down all my colour mixes; Eureka, out jumped the right grey and associated notes, not for the coal mine painting but for Lancashire Winter; In this case the colour mix was close to the one I had done when I had reproduced parts of the impressionists Edouard Manet painting and pont neuf by Maquet they were both Paris night scenes; Eureka the sketch books are out of the closet and by the easel...
Painting notes
The greys in this Lancashire, mid winter painting were difficult to get to; I started the painting last winter and it had hung on the studio wall for months; a bit to blue in tone and to vibrant for a wild Lancashire winter night; Today I was working on a new painting, it was a painting that focused on an coal mine high above the East Lancashire valley a dark brooding scene; I had the steel grey earth colour I wanted fixed in my minds eye, but had a mental block about the mix I should use, to jog my mind on the grey I had to resort to my old sketch book where I faithfully mark down all my colour mixes; Eureka, out jumped the right grey and associated notes, not for the coal mine painting but for Lancashire Winter; In this case the colour mix was close to the one I had done when I had reproduced parts of the impressionists Edouard Manet painting and pont neuf by Maquet they were both Paris night scenes; Eureka the sketch books are out of the closet and by the easel...
NW Highlands Cul Mor & Bheinn a' Chaidheimh, Paintings in Mixed media by Rob Miller RSA
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| Cul Mor from Loch Andoire dhuibh 23.5cmx15.5cm |
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| Beinn a' chaidheimh 23.5cmx15.5cm |
An Teallach, Stac Pollaidh Scottish Highlands; Mixed media painting by Rob Miller RSA
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| Stac Pollaidh Pen and wash 25.5cmx15.5cm |
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| Heavy Rain aproaching An Teallach Pen and Wash 25.5cmx15.5cm |
I'm never sure why but everytime I see a painting or drawing of a Highland Hill top I like to pict over it with a drink in my hand.*(maybe a hang up from my old school trips) Anyhow, here is the poem Heather Ale by the beloved Scot Robert Loius Stevenson,
From the bonny bells of heather
They brewed a drink long-syne,
Was sweeter far than honey,
Was stronger far than wine.
They brewed it and they drank it,
And lay in a blessed swound
For days and days together
In their dwellings underground.
There rose a King in Scotland,
They brewed a drink long-syne,
Was sweeter far than honey,
Was stronger far than wine.
They brewed it and they drank it,
And lay in a blessed swound
For days and days together
In their dwellings underground.
There rose a King in Scotland,
A fell man to his foes,
He smote the Picts in battle,
He hunted them like roes.
Over miles of the red mountain
He hunted as they fled,
And strewed the dwarfish bodies
Of the dying and the dead.
Summer came in the country,
Red was the heather bell,
But the manner of the brewing,
Was none alive to tell.
In graves that were like children's
On many a mountain's head,
The Brewsters of the Heather
Lay numbered with the dead.
The king in the red moorland
Rode on a summer's day;
And the bees hummed, and the curlews
Cried beside the way.
The king rode, and was angry,
Black was his brow and pale,
To rule in a land of heather
And lack the Heather Ale.
R.L.Stevenson's Heather Ale
The king in the red moorland
Rode on a summer's day;
And the bees hummed, and the curlews
Cried beside the way.
The king rode, and was angry,
Black was his brow and pale,
To rule in a land of heather
And lack the Heather Ale.
R.L.Stevenson's Heather Ale
Rivington Beech, West Pennine Lancashire drawings by Rob Miller
Three small drawings of the Beech tree copses in Rivingtons, northern winter gloaming, seen on the road up to Belmont..Long gone are the joys of automn and its colours. The sun sets to complete another dull, late afternoon, its last flash of light brings a momentary quickening of bright that seeks out each subtle, shade of grey in the empty overhanging clouds and turns them into bands of silver, the rusting, gold of last years leafs are now almost muffled by grey green moss covered walls and trees which drip peat brown water in syncopated harmony.
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| Rivington Beech 1 Mixed media 24cmx15cm |
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| Rivington Beech 2 Mixed media 14cmx10cm |
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| Rivington Beech 3 Mixed media 14cmx10cm |
Blackburn outskirts 2 drawings by Rob Miller
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| The last house Above Wilpshire by Parsenage Res Pen and Watercolour 34cmx24cm Rob Miller |
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| Blackedge near Darwen Pan and watercolour 34cmx24cm Rob Miller |
Blacksnape maybe in the West Pennines, but I think Parsenage Res, which sits just below the last hill before and above Wilpshire is probably a Ribble Valley place...Neither place is significant to me except for the fact that I did some early courting in both some 40 years ago..along with training for my schools cross country team events.( Not at the same time) It was cold and raining then as it is now when I stopped to do the sketches; this week it was sleeting down in fact and my experimentation was not quite as lust full, I was testing Van Gogh v Windsor and Newton watercolours....and pondering on the nature of this West Pennine area that I have decided to paint; the west Pennines name is a recently bestowed title by the conservationist staff of the surrounding municipality's, like the Council in Stoney Bridge Fife, name something and hey tourists appear, the moors now named as such are a much ravaged semi industrialized upland and valleys to the North West of Manchester. Lacking the rugged Hovis nature of Rossendale and the true pennines; the West Pennines by and large are dark purple heather moors which slumber under soft billowing grey skies that walk up full frontal from the Irish sea, with now and then a wait for a break in the rain; if your lucky the clouds tumble into rows of Cumulus and patches of the sky become blue, whilst on the ground, greyhound, shadows race across the open moors before tumbling through beech copses and down into the valleys villages which blend into woodland and white dot, green pastures;..A lot of the time when the Atlantic weather system becomes bogged down the pattern becomes one thick sheet of grey, to the East a distant line of sulphur, pale yellow and buff appears lining over Manchester and to the West a creamy bright cream blending sometimes with a baby blue shows were the land and its rivers meet the sea at the coast and Blackpool tower
Pendlebury Farm, Barrow Bridge, Bolton. A drawing by Rob Miller
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| Pendlebury Farm Barrow Bridge Bolton West Pennines Pen and wash Rob Miller 50cmx33cm |
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| Pendlebury Farm Barrow Bridge Boton West Pennines Pen and wash Rob Miller 50cmx33cm |
On the spring line of the water table, just below Scout Road there's an old winding road which leads steeply down to Barrow Bridge. The road lined by a traditional hedgerow, a burbling brook and a well planted old beech wood is a most pleasant spot to linger.
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