Salt cellar and sugar bowl

I sketched this in the cafe at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

I called in to see the exhibition of SJ Peploe, leading light of the Scottish Colourist movement at the beginning of the last century.  I was struck by his progressive development to abstracting into geometrical shapes while retaining the overall composition in still life or landscape.

I was also moved by the sculptures of Eduardo Paolozzi.  “Vulcan” towered above my table in the cafe.  “Tyrannical Tower Crowned with Thorns of Violence” lurked in an alcove.

 

I admire gardeners and sculptors

To draw or paint with a really big palette.  That’s impressive and a skill I’ve never mastered.

I found my way  to the blog The Iris and the Lily.  There are beautiful photographs here, most recently of butterflies.  However, what caught my eye was the labyrinth   http://theirisandthelily.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/re-gifting/. Although the scale is different, this line in stone brought to my mind the sculpture of Andy Goldsworthy in Grizedale Forest in Cumbria, “taking a wall for a walk”.

Many years ago I came across a photograph in a scientific journal of leaves floating in an iced pool.  I was so struck I had to commit it to paint.

This was of course a photograph of famous sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy in which maple leaves were hand stitched into a mat draping the landscape.