The Courier and Advertiser, Saturday, April 24, 2010
Background: detail from West
AS AN artist who loved hillwalking, when Keith Salmon was told he was likely to go blind as a result of diabetic retinopathy, he feared that
neither his professional life nor leisure time would ever be the same again. However, in his determination to make the most of his little
remaining sight, Keith has not only reinvigorated his artistic career, he’s also now able to enjoy the mountains just as much as when he
Different
strokes
A
LTHOUGH Irvine-based artist
Keith Salmon trained as a
sculptor, he’s always painted
and drawn. And although the
unexpected news that he might lose
his sight stopped him in his tracks, it
didn’t dampen his desire to paint —
quite the opposite, he says.
“When I’ve been making sculpture,
drawing has still been really important
to me. I’ve always worked as an artist
on a full or part-time basis —
sometimes I’ve had full-time jobs,
sometimes I’ve had part-time jobs,
sometimes I’ve been on the dole, but
I’ve always painted or drawn.
“My sight suddenly started to go
bad in 1990 and when they first
realised what was wrong, they said,
‘Well, you’ll probably go totally blind in
a few years, but we’ll try and save a bit
of your sight.’ And that was the one
time I stopped working. I stopped for
about three months. It was such a
shock.
“But then I suddenly thought, hang
about, I’m wasting my time here. So I
got back to it. I decided I really ought
to put all my efforts into the purely
visual side of my work, the drawing
and painting, while I still had some
sight. Thinking that if I was unfortunate
enough to lose all my sight a few years
down the line, at least I could then turn
back to sculpture and working in a
purely tactile way.
“Thankfully, the laser treatment that I
had saved a little bit of sight in one
eye, and I’ve just carried on drawing
and painting ever since.”
While Keith resolved to carry on
painting, one pastime he thought he’d
have to give up as a result of his sight
loss was hillwalking. Born in Essex,
he grew up in Wales and had enjoyed
walking and scrambling in the Welsh
mountains from an early age.
“We moved up to Irvine in 1998—
although I’d climbed lots of other hills
around the UK, I’d never climbed a
Munro. And my sight was so bad by
this time that I thought I never would.”
But when Keith heard about a
mountaineering course for the visually
impaired run by Glenmore Lodge
outdoor activity centre near Aviemore,
it made him think again.
“I’ve always walked in the hills, but
as my sight got worse it was getting
more and more difficult, and I wasn’t
really sure whether I should still be
going out walking. And then I heard
about this course and thought I’d go
and give it a whirl. It was very good,
but I think the most important thing for
me was that I met six other visually
impaired people who also wanted to
get out walking and climbing.”
His confidence boosted by the
course, Keith climbed his first Munro
then started going out into the hills
more and more regularly.
“Then, just as time went by, I
thought, perhaps I can walk 25. Then it
was, perhaps I can walk 50 — and
then we walked 50, and I thought, well
I’m never going to do them all, but
what a great thing to be able to say
that I’ve done a hundred. And my
partner Anita and I finally achieved this
on a wonderful snowy day up in the
Drumochter hills in 2007.”
When he was fully sighted, Keith
December afternoon,
Glen Lyon, Acrylic
& Pastel, 2009.
above the Blackwater reservoir,
Acrylic & Pastel, 2009.
was fully sighted. He told Ursula Pool how his loss of sight has led to a gain in artistic perspective.
had never been keen on painting the
mountain landscapes he enjoyed
walking in, he says, preferring to take
inspiration from man-made
environments and structures for his
work.
“I was into building sites and
buildings. I’d spend a lot of time going
round the edges of building sites
drawing — all the machinery, all the
reinforcing steel, the concrete, the
scaffolding, all the squares and the
shapes.
“For a long time I thought there was
no point of even trying to do pictures
about mountains, because the
mountains themselves are so beautiful
I couldn’t see how I could do anything
that would in any way do them
justice.”
However, losing his sight gave Keith
a whole new visual appreciation of the
mountain environment, and he realised
that he had a different experience of
the landscape he could communicate
through his work. No longer able to
see the fine details, he found himself
better able to focus on the bigger
picture, the atmosphere and some of
the more abstract aspects of a scene.
“It’s very difficult to describe the
type of fuzzy view that I get. It is very
limited. But when I look at a
landscape, even though it’s sort of
vague, it still is stunningly beautiful.
You don’t have to have the detail in
what’s out there to appreciate it. It
doesn’t matter that you can’t see all
of blobs and bright bits of colour or artist is that you don’t have the option in a series of layers of pastel and paint. out on the hills, but also to know that
the little bits — just seeing big blobs of
contrast. And I think in a way I’m lucky, to be taken in with all the detail.” That sets them apart, but this way of while you’re out you’re taking in all this
light and colour, it’s still beautiful.”
because I imagine for some people that Keith’s paintings are not intended to working developed out of necessity — information. I do some sketching while
A life spent painting and sculpting as my sight failed I originally started to I’m out there — I have to use a
might possibly be difficult to appreciate. be literal representations of Scottish
may have helped him come to terms paint with broad paint lines because I monocular, which is quite bizarre
with seeing things differently, says But I’ve always looked at things in those mountain scenes; instead he’s aiming to
couldn’t figure out how to do anything because I have to hold it up to the eye
Keith. terms, even when I could see properly. convey the feeling of being there, in the
detailed. that I see through, and then sketch
“As a painter or a sculptor you look “And, in fact, one of the things that a midst of that scenery. His work is not
“I was painting pictures that were almost blind and occasionally peer
at things in terms of shapes and lot of people say when you’re painting only different in the way it portrays down and try to see what I’ve got.
landscape, he says, but is also unusual quite abstract, but I really missed
textures, so it’s meant that I haven’t or drawing is that the difficult bit is not drawing, because I used to do lots of “Quite often it’s just a complete
had to relearn how to look, or to get taken in with all the detail that you in the way it is created.
observational drawing. At the time I scribble, but often I also get some nice
appreciate things. When I see the can see. So in a way, one of the benefits “The paintings are a mixture of acrylic couldn’t think how I could do that, and drawings. They’re very loose and
landscape, I see it very much in terms of being visually impaired and being an paint with oil pastel and they’re built up then it dawned on me a number of scribbly, but the big thing about it is
years ago that I could still see to that when you draw, whether you have
scribble. So I started doing these to look through a monocular or you’re
Winter afternoon, drawings which were just scribbled not quite sure what you’re drawing, it’s
Beinn Dorain, lines built up, layer upon layer, with forcing you to look and take things in,
Acrylic & Pastel, 2009. vague images pulled out. and that is really important.
“I can’t paint fine marks without “And the paintings I do are all based
using magnifiers, which I still have to on these trips into the mountains, and
use, but they really weren’t very they’re all based on particular places or
successful. And then it suddenly particular moments as the weather
occurred to me that if I painted using changed, for example. But there’s very
broad brushes and then scribbled-cum- few of them you could actually hold up
drew into the paint, I would create the in front of the view and say, ‘Oh that’s
impression of detail. So the pictures here’. But then that’s not what they’re
have gradually developed from there. about. They’re about how I experience
“It is an unusual way of working — the places I go, about the light and
a lot of people ask how I can get so colours and patterns that I see. I see a
much detail when I can’t really see it. very limited kind of view of the
Well, all of the marks are ones that landscape, very much in terms of
create themselves, in a way. I put them pattern, and that’s what I try and paint.
down, but I can’t see them very “But I’m also interested in paintings
accurately, so a lot of the scratches and as paintings, so hopefully when I do a
scrapes and scribbles just develop, and good piece it works both as a Scottish
this lends itself quite well to the textures landscape and it also works in a purely
and feel of the Scottish landscape.” aesthetic way as an abstract painting,
Keith’s landscape works have earned so you can just enjoy it for its marks, its
him critical acclaim, and last year he colours, its composition. If I can get the
won the Jolomo Award for Scottish two things to work together, that’s when
Landscape Painting, the £20,000 prize I feel like I’m doing a good painting.”
allowing him the luxury of some ■ More examples of Keith’s work,
professional breathing space in which as well as information about which
to spend more time in the hills and galleries are currently displaying his
develop his work further. paintings, can be found online at
“It’s nice to go and have a big day www.keithsalmon.org
Beinn Liath Mhor,
Acrylic & Pastel,
2009.