This month has been pretty incredible in terms of growth and finding balance. In a recent YouTube video I confessed I've been feeling confused about my path. For a while now it's been really hard to stay motivated and inspired while painting bigger studio work at home.
The amazing summer weather and energy I feel while painting on location is what truly moves me and excites me to create. But for so long I thought of my plein air sketching as:
1. A way to relax and feel connected to nature between the stresses of life, and therefore not “real” art.
2. As a means to an end - to improve my skills and knowledge of the landscape so that I could translate that to bigger canvases.
But I had a breakthrough this month, realizing that those moments out on the trail are what truly matter to me right now, so why aren't they the protagonist of my story? Why do I make them the supporting character (sometimes villain) when they are the driving force behind everything I do?
So, I decided to change that with a simple project. It’s an idea I've had for years but never felt "ready" (whatever that means). I had to give myself permission to start this idea. And I did, yesterday.
Walking the Moray Coast Trail with my Sketchbook
Walking along Cullen Beach
I live in Moray county, a beautiful coastal region between Inverness and Aberdeenshire. Since I moved to Scotland 7 years ago, it's been a dream of mine to walk the entire length of Scotland's coast. But...that's a bit daunting isn’t it! There are over 6,000 miles of coastline in Scotland, and over 11K if you factor in the islands.
So I am starting small. In my own “backyard.”
The Moray Coast Trail is approximately 50 miles long, is well marked, accessible for most walkers, and best of all, close to home. I can take a bus to and from any of the towns that are evenly spread across the coast.
I started the journey yesterday in Cullen, near the Salmon Bothy (ruins) on the very eastern edge of Moray county. I will share the Day 1 journey in my next blog post.
The Route
The Moray Coast Trail is 50 miles long covers almost the entire length of Moray county, but the entire Moray coastline is a little longer so I’ll need to adjust my route after Forres. I’ll stick to the trail, starting in Cullen and walking west. I will divert slightly into each town to refill water or use facilities as I go.
I’m breaking the hike into multiple days and going home between walks. Each town along the trail has a bus stop, and it’s approx. £6 one way to/from my hometown. So as long as I start and stop in a town, I can go home after a long day and pick up where I left off another day.
Being Realistic about The Schedule
Since I’m sketching every 1/2 mile or so, this adds on a tremendous amount of time. I’m also recording parts of the journey with my camera and drone which adds even more. Yesterday I only walked 6 miles (I walked an extra mile than I needed to just to get a specific view). But that measly little 6 miles took me all day. It was humbling and for a brief moment I thought I should give up.
But, then I remembered it’s OK to take my time. It’s not about some wild physical challenge. It’s about living the dream step by step no matter what the pace. I don’t want to rush the process. I want to capture lots of details and scenes along the way and be PRESENT in each moment. When I’m old and unable to walk I’ll look back on the sketchbooks, writings, photos and videos and relive it all.
It’s not possible for me to pause my life and do the whole trail in one go - even if I could. This is something that stopped me from ever starting until now. I thought I had to do the whole thing in one go to “make it count.” Silly right? If you want to do something, just do it. Find ways to fit it into your schedule. Take ownership of your time. EVERYTHING YOU DO counts, because it’s life!
My goal is to finish during August (this would be amazing considering how busy I am). The green dotted line on this map shows the trail and the names are the main towns along the way.
If you’d like to follow along this journey, make sure to bookmark this blog.
I will also be sharing all the sketchbook scans with my Patreons. And I’ll be sharing some of the journey on both of my YouTube channels: The personal journey side will be shared on my Scotland channel, while the sketches will be shared on my art channel. Subscribe to either or both for lots of fun in the future.