Number in series 70; Year of publication 1986 - Fell and Rock ...

ALL OUTW.HeatonCooperAt nine o'clock on this June night it was still light enough by Loch Coir' a'Ghrunnda to draw the purple-black spur of Sgurr Alasdair against the sky as itswept down to the sandy shore of the lochain, the rough gabbro foreground andthe Siamese-twin shaped island of Soay that led the eye over an immense spaceto Rhum and Canna on the horizon.There is something about the Cuillin that is different, even beyond the fact ofits magnificent position, rising in the south a sheer 3000 feet out of the sea,encircling the hollow that holds Coruisk, and even beyond the great expanse ofwater with the family of islands standing around. Possibly half-remembering theancient sagas from my Norwegian childhood and being alone with the windmoaning among the midnight rocks, I felt that anything might happen here.Around three o'clock a gentle glow began to spread from the east across thethin high canopy of cloud, revealing immense space and a sense of expectancy.Rhum and Canna, purple amongst the pale gold, seemed to emphasize thecontinuity of the earth beyond the horizon. The slowly increasing lightintensified the turning of our sphere and oneself with it.The painter now needs to do several things simultaneously. First and mostimportant is the need to be entirely free, like a child, to lose himself in wonderand delight. At the same time he needs to make a cool appraisal of the prioritiesof design and of the tone values, and to organize the sequences of colour,especially if using a transparent medium. All the way to the conclusion it is ofvital importance to retain the vision, wonder and delight that made him firstwant to paint it.On that morning upon the Cuillin ridge time no longer existed. After severalhours, which might as well have been minutes, the painting had enough vitalityand emphasis for me to use it, together with the previous evening's drawing, tocarry out at leisure in my studio a larger oil painting: the drawing — a record ofform and structure — to give information, and the colour sketch — thesubconscious emotional content — to produce a fairly subjective result.In choosing a route on a crag the process is, in some ways, rather similar. Theintense appreciation of the whole mountain and the crag as part of it; thecompelling urge to climb it; the cool assessment of an interesting line to take, ofthe problems on the way and, possibly, of variations, as far as one can judgefrom below. Then the total commitment to the whole route and, from the firstfew feet, to every move, every sign of a hold and to every one of the hundreds ofdecisions to be made, as in a painting. Time has no more meaning, especially ifone is climbing solo. Then the exhilaration of achievement, the sudden changeof eye focus from close detail of rock to the relief and delight of unlimited spaceand far horizons.Sgurr Alasdair and the Cuillin Ridge.Abraham Collectionp. 132NewWest. p. 133 Stanley Watson on Sepulchre.