Sky Through the Glen

In Mara's words

“Glen Coe can feel solemn even on a bright day. I began this piece with the river because water offered a second sky: a narrow opening held at ground level when the mountains and cloud seemed to close everything else in.”

The work is about release rather than drama. Dark slopes remain on either side, but the eye can travel through them. I wanted that open channel to feel earned—not an escape from difficult weather, but a way of moving within it.

I painted the mountains with broad textured tablet strokes, then simplified their silhouettes with edited masks. The reflected sky uses translucent digital color and cooler, cleaner edges so the opening reads as light rather than paint.