I went on a trip up to Collieston this afternoon; it's on the coast about 4 miles north of Newburgh, which is itself about 12 miles or so north of Aberdeen. It's a wee fishing village, complete with harbour, cottages and a bit of sandy beach.
The sun had finally come out, so it was a good chance to get some photographs of somewhere scenic, and different to where I usually go. I can't remember the last time I was there. It's well looked-after. There are public toilets down at the front. There's parking to the north of the village, with a footpath that takes you round to the harbour (or you can park there, I found out afterwards). I sat on a bench on the approach to the pier and sketched for quite a while. I tend to be a bit too ambitious when sketching; should try and concentrate on one small area in future. I end up having to draw about twenty houses, where a couple might be better. I took some photos too. It was lovely and sunny, but pretty chilly in the wind.
Two sketches later, I walked round to the south side of the bay, along the front of the village, complete with upturned rowing boats, creels, little sheds and bright pink and orange buoys dotted about the place. I meandered down to the shore, peered into some rockpools and took some more photos, this time of the rockpools, a series of waves coming into a sluice in the rocks, and the clouds scudding past the top of the cliffs overhead. Among other things. One more sketch from the south side of the bay, then homewards, as it was really chilly again, the sun having gone in. The cliff face by the car park caught my eye; lovely colours and textures - warm red sandstone with what I believed to be some fool's gold in it.
