
Highland Welcome - Glenmorangie House Hotel
Spirit of The Highlands Collection
Paul Taggart Masterworks
Oils on Board
Private Collector Ownership
Frame Size (outer) 51cm[w] x 48cm[h]
FRAME - Hand-made by Frinton Frames. 85mm wide frame tailored to the painting. Gesso covered dome-shaped reverse moulding surrounding Ivory Liner, hand coloured in Beige/Blue/Red with Light Grey Wash.
“Welcome to our Highland studio and thank you for dropping by to view my Masterworks oil painting, ‘Highland Welcome’ – one of a suite of four paintings in which Glenmorangie Whisky is the subject. Much-beloved around the world, Glenmorangie whisky is steeped in the history of the Highlands of Scotland, where it continues to be distilled on the banks of Dornoch Firth, north of Inverness.
SUBJECT – Shortly the field will be ploughed for another sowing and soon it will be Spring. The open gate beckons you onwards, to see what lies through the further gate, visible in the stone wall on the opposite edge of the field. Peeking through the rays of sunlight, which cut the scudding clouds, is the far distant peak of Ben Rinnes, across the waters of the Moray Firth.
Take the path that runs through the avenue of trees from the Glenmorangie House Hotel at Cadboll, seen here to the right of the Doocot in the field and you will reach cliff tops that bring you down to the shoreline walks from Hilton. Anyone you meet on your walk will bid you a friendly hello – a warm welcome to the Highlands.
COMPOSITION – I began the composition with the gate closed, thinking its wooden bars would echo the horizontal banding of the clouds and sea beyond. However, as the painting progressed, it became obvious that this actually became a barrier, preventing the viewer from passing through, to explore the landscape beyond. Opening the gate was the solution, for it not only provided an invitation to the viewer to venture into the landscape, but it also allowed a far more interestingly shaped shadow to be developed in the foreground. To the right, the stacked hay suggests we are standing in a garden, or at least a managed plot, beyond lies nature with its sunny grassland.
The shining effects of sunlight pouring from the cloud base was, in reality, very much to my left – ‘pulling’ it into the composition provided a much-needed balance against the imposing structure of the stone doocot. This building was kept relatively small against the field, so that it would not over-dominate, but it does provide a strong vertical element against those horizontal bands of the landscape, sea and sky beyond.
METHOD & TECHNIQUE – Oil paint is the perfect medium for such a subject. Layers of glaze and tints help to capture the depth of colour and radiant light needed to evoke the mood of the moment. Using oil paint allowed me to exploit the juxtaposition of opaque and transparent layers. This is most vividly expressed in the sky, where, opaque mixes of paint overlay transparent oil glazes and subtly coloured tints, to suggest the beams of sunlight, In the waters of the Moray Firth and the North Sea surrounding the Seaboard Villages below, a series of opaque impasto textures build in succession over glazes, to create the dazzling areas of light.
As always, we thank you for reading and watching, with best wishes from Eileen and myself,”
Paul Taggart
Artist : Author : Presenter : Producer
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