Keeping blues and yellows apart - Fidra in the Firth of Forth (and a sunset at Cullen)

Fidra from the shore by Yellowcraig, East Lothian (cropped!)

Fidra, from the Old Norse for ‘feather island’ is an RSPB bird reserve. It is said to have inspired the map for Robert Louis Stevenson’s work ‘Treasure Island’. (But then, there are other claimants!)

This is gouache - fast-drying (sometimes too fast) but handy for stopping the blue shades and the yellow-ish shades in the sky from doing their own mixing thing - which mostly means mucky greens.

That's all that need be said! Oh, except that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds own Fidra. Nearby Lamb Island is owned by Uri Geller, of all people. No, really...today's fun fact.

Fidra - one of the Firth of Forth's islands

That Cullen Sunset thing

This is midsummer in Cullen. This wee place is worth a visit any time. It faces north, out into the Moray Firth, and all the time I lived near there it never ceased to surprise me how far north the sun set around midsummer. Almost the land of ‘the simmer dim’, in fact - an expression they use even further north to describe the way the sunset merges with the dawn and it never gets very dark.

I have heard that a couple of streets in Cullen used to be called ‘Little Glasgow’ - a reminder of how popular the place is with holiday folk. Small wonder, with a scenic fisher-toun below and a later ‘new town’ above, Cullen is full of charm - as well as a good selection of shops.

In fact, it has of recent years picked up what almost could be seen as ‘critical mass’ - one antique shop or one gallery or gift shop encouraging another, so that now there is plenty of browsing opportunity. (But it’s got a decent Co-op as well for the basics!)

All that, plus a wacky golf course and a splendid walk along the old trackbed of its long-vanished coastal rail link - and not forgetting beaches and cliffs to east and west - mean that Cullen is just, well, a super wee town/village on the Moray Firth. (Actually, it’s my favourite.)

Painting that Cullen sunset (detail above)

(Aaargh. Too close. Only kidding - though I think the colour repro of the finished print you get is more like the one further up the page - rather than the close-up here.)

It’s mostly in gouache with some water-soluble crayon (but not the stuff you’ll use in kiddies’ playgroups!) - Derwent Inktense, actually.

If, as I suspect, you already know Cullen, then there are a couple of other views you might consider. See Cullen, Tide Rising.

....also View of Cullen Bay from west.