This painting was the first one that I painted after arriving in Scotland. Aberdeen is known as "The Granite City" and "The City of Roses". We arrived in August and the roses were in full bloom...on the median strips, in people's yards, on hillsides, in the city...everywhere you looked, there were beautiful and colorful roses!
But against the roses, as a backdrop, are these gray, hard, majestic, granite buildings. And in Aberdeen, almost every building in the downtown area, is made of granite. They are hundreds of years old. There is a quarry in Aberdeen that today is known as "the biggest hole in Europe", because so much granite was taken from it in the building of the city.
A few of the architectural structures you see in this painting are details from Marischal and King Colleges, both early institutions of education in Scotland that are today part of Aberdeen University. The bridges crossing the River Dee, that runs through Aberdeen, are represented here, as well as the gray skies and muted cloud colors that frequently match the buildings below.
What struck me primarily, was the absolute contrast between the flowers and the buildings. The flowers were colorful, soft, temporal; whereas, the buildings were gray,hard, and enduring. Each depends on the other for its exuberance. And so this is a painting of contrasts. It's about how Aberdeen has both elements, in its people and in its environment.
The part of this painting that relates to home can be seen in the lower right corner...the geometric pattern known as the "Whig Rose". It was a pattern used in the making of coverlets in Cedar Bluff, Tazewell County, VA. The Whig Rose is actually an English design; so again, it relates back to Britain, but it has been carried over to our mountains. This painting is owned by Aberdeen College.
Ellen Elmes
PO Box SVCC
Richlands, VA 24641-1101
email: ellen.elmes@sw.edu
phone: 276.964.7205
fax: 276.964.7720