Places to Paint: Bridget Hunter's West Coast of Scotland

Blue Sea at Portuairk

Oil on board  24 x 20
Bridget Hunter 2010

This is Bridget Hunter, who lives in Ayrshire, on the topic of her favourite place to paint - the west coast of Scotland.

You asked for favourite places to paint and I would have to say the West Coast of Scotland.

Yes, there are midgies at certain times and yes it can be wet for days but when the skies are high and the seas are turquoise and the sands are white there is no better place that I know. The islands with the mountain backdrops almost compose their own compositions. And the air is so pure you can almost touch it.

Rum, Muck and White Sands

Acrylic on board  20 x 16

Bridget Hunter 2010

You'll find Bridget's attempts at capturing these landscapes on her blog Bridget Hunter's Paintings.  The images are, I think, two views of the same spot on different days.  Here are some examples

• Eigg, Rum and shore sheep 
• Rum, Muck and White Sands 
• Blue sea at Portuairk 
• Dark sea at Sana 
• Acharachle with Blue Skies

My own experience of the west coast of Scotland

My uncle and aunt lived in Helensburgh when I was a child. We'd often stay with them before heading off to another part of the west coast. As a child we never seemed to go anywhere other than the west coast of Scotland for our holidays and I've stayed everywhere from Kirkcudbright (known as"the Artists Town") in in the estuary of the River Dee in the south to Loch Broom/Ullapool in Wester Ross in the north with nearby Gairloch and Gruinard Bay being two of my favourite all time Scottish places.  I've got very vivid visual memories of a lot of places.

I can only concur that it's one of the most attractive places I know and I'm left wondering why it is I haven't visited in a long time.

Mind you I do remember the midges - very well!  Out of midge season would be a good time to go or paint in a windy exposed area!  ;)

Below are some relevant websites.  Sadly there's no national park as yet which covers the west coast or parts of the west coast.  However there is hope that it might happen at some point in the future - although there are others that argue that Scotland doesn't value its natural heritage enough. 

In June 2005, the Scottish Executive announced their intention to create Scotland’s first coastal and marine national park. Five possible locations for this were being considered:

• Solway Firth
• Argyll Islands and Coast
• Ardnamurchan, Small Isles and South Skye Coast
• North Skye Coast and Wester Ross
• North Uist, Sound of Harris, Harris and South Lewis

Overview Map of 10 indicative areas

Here are some relevant websites

• Scottish National Heritage
• BBC "Coast" - West Coast Scotland
• Gone to Scotland - West Scotland
• Undiscovered Scotland

Here are some maps of the area

• Undiscovered Scotland - Sutherland
• Undiscovered Scotland - Western Isles - including Lewis, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra
• Undiscovered Scotland - West Highlands and Coast - including Eigg, Muck, Rum and Skye
• Undiscovered Scotland - West central
• Undiscovered Scotland - Argyll & Bute area - including Mull, Jura, Islay and Iona
• Undiscovered Scotland - Map of South West

Those wanting to explore other attractive parts of Scotland could do worse than investigate the only two national parks created to date

• Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park website 
• Cairngorms National Park Authority website