Pink Snow – Jawbone Walk, Edinburgh Meadows – Watercolour in an A4Watercolour Moleskine
Jawbone Walk is one of the main paths cutting across the Meadows. It gets its name from the curious arch constructed from the jawbones of whales, placed at the south end of the route. You can just about see this here:
This was a common practise in days gone by when whaling was one of the mainstays of Scottish industry, in fact whale oil was the only oil available for lighting until James Young developed a method of extracting oil from shale bearing rocks. There is a similar structure on top of North Berwick Law but it is formed from fibreglass, the original having disintegrated long ago. The path is lined with flowering cherries which only seem to bloom for a few days every year, the climate causes the blossom to fall prematurely. At least I saw it this year
Sophie Brown 9:44 am on May 22, 2009 | #
Very pretty.
201169 11:06 am on May 22, 2009 | #
wow!
wonderfull!
do you use a toothbrush too spread the reds?
wonderfull anyway!
it’s like japanese hanami!
thank you trebor!
trebor61 1:47 pm on May 22, 2009 | #
Thank you both. I masked out areas for the red blossom (the stuff at the front of the painting) and painted the rest of the greens and greys. When the masking fluid was removed I used a small brush, previously ruined by masking fluid, to stiple the colour onto the “White Areas”. The colour was a stiff mix of “Rose Dore”. (I usually protect my brushes from the effects of masking fluid by immersing the brissles in neat washing up liquid. I obviously forgot to do this for the small brush). I’m glad you like this. I looked up “Hanami” and was amazed at the beautiful flowering cherries in Japan.
plasma_girl 1:49 pm on May 22, 2009 | #
This is an amazing image!
The red blossoms are so striking and vibrant; I can almost hear the wind rustling in the branches.
Thanks for sharing this!
Rob 2:51 pm on May 22, 2009 | #
Gorgeous piece, Bob. Gorgeous.
trebor61 3:18 pm on May 22, 2009 | #
Plasma-girl/Rob – I’m really pleased that you enjoyed my wee painting. I’ve said before, on this website, that this is all a learning curve for this hobby, for me and to get such generous feedback makes me want to try much harder next time. Thank you.
Margie 5:28 pm on May 22, 2009 | #
Hi Bob, this is beautiful! I liked reading about how you did it. I was going to ask, but you already answered… how does one not ruin one’s brushes using masking fluid?
trebor61 3:28 am on May 23, 2009 | #
Hi Margie, Glad you like this. I, perhaps, should have mentioned that I keep a small medicine bottle full of washing up liquid close by. This enables me to dip the brush into it so that the stuff covers part of the metal ferrule of the brush. I then pull the brush through my fingers but don’t remove all of the liquid. the brush can then be dipped straight into the masking fluid. The brush, I used above, was not treated like this and now resembles a piece of barbed wire but, strangely enough, is excellent for stippling masking fluid into small areas although I still add the soap to stop it resembling a chewed pencil.
Matt L 7:41 am on May 23, 2009 | #
I like the branches