A Map of Loch Lomond (Seeing through the others eyes)

Monday - Tales from the Studio

I love maps. All kind of maps, from nautical maps with depth contours and tidal information to 3D topological maps where your fingers can walk the mountain peaks.

My favourite feature of maps are contours, thin lines representing hills and mountains which in themselves are a wonderful works of art. Even the simplest of contour outlines are as satisfying to look at as they are to create.

A simple line mountain range represented by contours

The Old Woman of the Land -hidden within the contours

We once navigated by the land, with directions given as head to the great oak, follow the river, or keep walking until you find the giant stone. But while we navigate today by GPS, owl and badger, bat and deer navigate by their own unique maps of the land.

It’s fascinating that each creature has their own experience of the land. What an insight if we could experience see the land by owls eyes, or feel how mole navigates in the dark earth.

These paintings speak to those different ways of seeing, a shell represents whales migration (before the last ice age Loch Lomond was a sea loch), a twig how small birds know the forest. All eyes are to the sky when magpie cries or when the jackdaws take flight in a great swoop of darkness.

The abstract colours and shapes speak to the different seasons, and the cup and ring rock marking speaks to how our ancestors were part of that land and how they themselves has a far greater vision and relationship with the land than we do.

Yet the land was different in their day, as they lived with auroch and bear, wolf and lynx. What parts of ourself might well have died with the loss of these great creatures?

This painting speaks to that relationship and how we all experience and navigate the world differently and holds a lament to what we have lost.