Toots for ChaHarper@mastodon.scot account

Written by Charles Harper on 2025-02-03 at 18:16

‘Sunlight in the Blue Room’ is an 1891 painting by Anna Ancher, an innovative Danish painter who was a central figure with the Skagen Painters. With its many shades of blue and the sunlight pouring through the window, the painting is one of her most famous works.

Those shadows cast by the foliage in the window are very evocative for me. The painting reminds me of summer afternoons at my grandparents’ farm. Some of my yesterdays.

[#]summervibes #complementarycolours #danishartist #19thC

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-02-01 at 13:47

This is a view of the snowy Cuillin range here on Skye. Although over 20 miles away from us they are a powerful presence. There are 12 Munros in there.

Munros in Scotland are mountains 3,000 ft (914.4m) or over.

“There are in total 282 Munros across Scotland. The highest Munro is Ben Nevis at 4,411 ft (1,345 m), though there are lower, but arguably more challenging Munros to climb, such as the 12 airy peaks of the Black Cuillin on Skye..”

[#]blackcuillins #munros #isleofskye #snowcovered #feb1

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-22 at 23:20

‘Nine Winter-y Words to Warm the Cockles’

from BBC Radio 4

“Now here's a word to love on a frosty morning: “apricity” is a now obsolete word that means “the warmth of the sun in winter”. E.G.: “The apricity of today's sun feels like a warm blanket.” It was in 1623 that lexicographer Henry Cockeram recorded (or invented) the word in his book The English Dictionarie: Or, An Interpreter Of Hard English Words. It never stuck. Perhaps it's about time we brought it back.”

[#]apricity #dogsofmastodon

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-21 at 10:20

“The New River is an artificial waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water taken from Chadwell and Amwell Springs near Ware in Hertfordshire, and later the River Lea and other sources.”

The New River is still in use today, transferring around 220 million litres of water per day — 8% of London's total use. I went for a walk along a section of it. This is an Eurasian Coot.

[#]NewRiverWalkN1 #reflections #coot #feet #bald #scary

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-14 at 06:09

This snap taken from an aeroplane window just after sunset last night puts me in mind of a painting by Rothko. It is, however, a much less abstract image. Despite its simple bands of colour it still manages to be sky and clouds and a long light on the horizon.

Mark Rothko 1903 – 1970) was a Latvian American abstract painter. He is best known for his colour field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of colour, which he produced from 1949 to 1970.

[#]abstract #art

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-09 at 08:45

'Apricity' is a word which describes the warmth of the sun in winter. It comes from the Latin word 'apricitas' meaning sunshine.

Nearly every day during the winter there is a moment or a while when the sun glows and the warm sunlight comes racing towards you. This is the view from up the lane near us. It was a case of getting out there quickly as the conditions alter with alarming speed…

[#]apricity #wintersun #reflections #isleofskye #scotland

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-06 at 13:55

‘Still Life with Teapot on Round Table’ 1945

National Galleries of Scotland

Anne Redpath OBE ARA (1895–1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works.

Redpath's father was a tweed designer in the Scottish Borders. She saw a connection between his use of colour and her own. "I do with a spot of red or yellow in a harmony of grey, what my father did in his tweed."

[#]ScottishArtist #colour #stilllife #teatable #joy

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Written by Charles Harper on 2025-01-02 at 09:03

A tradition. We go for a walk on New Year’s Day to the Coral Beach near Claigan. This is the third time we’ve done it. It’s usually fairly busy as it is a popular place to walk here on Skye, however we went early yesterday and had it to ourselves…

“The beach is made from crushed white coral like seaweed that makes the water look tropical blue when the sun comes out.” The sun was shy and the day cold and not like the tropics at all.

[#]tradition #newyearsday #CoralBeach #isleofskye #scotland

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-29 at 17:03

We often walk in this place. It’s not on the way to anywhere. It’s not a destination. We have it to ourselves most times. Pale solstice sea and clouds, low, watery sun, waves of worn winter grass…

The days are short here; only six hours of daylight and so we go out when we can.

It’s past the shortest day now…

[#]midwinter #poetry #isleofskye #LochBracadale #scotland

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-21 at 12:56

“The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, and when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.”

It happened at 09:21 hours today here in Scotland..

[#]HappySoltice #yule #shortestday

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-18 at 08:12

St Mary's Old Church is a ruin just outside Dunvegan, here on the Isle of Skye. The church was built in 1694 - the date is inscribed on a stone over the north door - to replace an older medieval church that served as the parish church for the Duirinish region of N. Skye.

The original building was a simple rectangle, but a burial aisle was added in 1839. A 1735 burial enclosure with fine Renaissance carving stands against the west gable.

[#]ruins #burialplace #isleofskye #Dunvegan #winter

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-10 at 06:33

This is a photograph I took in Lanzarote. The landscape is volcanic in nature and special to this place. This post is a companion piece to my last one.

[#]lanzarote #photography #lageria #landscape #volcanic

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-09 at 11:07

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was fascinated by natural forms and landscapes, and the inspiration she drew from them is evident throughout her work. La Geria is a region in Lanzarote shaped by black lava rock. The artist first visited Lanzarote in the 1950s and worked from the island in the late 80s and early 90s.

I found her work to be a great influence on the way I looked at Lanzarote on a recent visit. My next post is another photograph I took inspired by her work..

[#]lanzarote #art #landscape

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-12-01 at 05:12

“Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was one of Britain’s most significant 20th century modern artists. Scottish born, she was a sublime painter, draughtswoman, printmaker and a brilliant colourist.”

I am on a holiday on Lanzarote, one of the Spanish islands in the Atlantic Ocean. ‘Willy’ came here on 5 occasions. I knew her work before I came here and hoped to find inspiration to make photographs of the landscape informed by her work. This is one of the ones I made:

[#]landscapephotography #art #colour

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-11-28 at 04:36

I’m on a walking holiday in the Canary Isles:

“Las Montañas del Fuego are the unusual result of the eruptions in the south of  Lanzarote in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

It is part of the Timanfaya National Park, where  you can contemplate one of the largest volcanic activity in the world, both for the  immense number of materials thrown by fire, as for its spectacular duration: six  years between 1730 and 1736 where the insides of the island did not stop erupting.”

[#]lanzarote

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-11-19 at 21:35

First snow of the winter. Always a thrill, even more so when the sun shines from a blue sky.

[#]November #firstsnow #LochBracadale #IsleofSkye #Scotland

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-11-17 at 20:31

Brodie the red fox Labrador Retriever is a bringer of much joy. He needs a daily walk and one of our favourites is to climb this hill overlooking Dunvegan and the Loch. We go up there in all weathers.

[#]IsleofSkye #Scotland #LabradorRetriever #dailywalk #uplifting #joy

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-11-12 at 18:37

Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it was an important festival in many parts of Europe.

Martinmas in old Scots was often known as ‘Martinmas in winter’ to distinguish it from the feast of the translation of St Martin on the fourth of July. In Scotland it was one of the half yearly quarter days when landlords’ rents were paid, and new hands were hired.

[#]martinmas #sunset #calm

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-11-08 at 19:52

The soothing colours at sunset bring out feelings of serenity and tranquillity and an improvement in my mood.

Another day, another sunset…the world turns and day turns to night, night turns to day. Then there’s the cycle of the year. The seasons are marked with celebrations and light is very often featured. We are well into that season now…

[#]festivals #light #sunset #winter #scotland

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Written by Charles Harper on 2024-10-30 at 10:02

The late paintings of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham are some of the most remarkable of her lengthy career.

Willie’s career and reputation was boosted by an outpouring of paintings and prints made in her final decade.  The Scorpio Series notably introduced a new dynamic to her art that was to lead to a further experimentation and in her own words, “letting rip.” 

This one is ‘Scorpio series 3, no. 124',

[#]AbstractPainting #art #colour #ScottishArtist #joy

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