Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 12"

The painting is on a stretched canvas, painted round the sides, with a string on the back, so it is ready to hang as it is, or can be framed if you prefer.

We camped at Caolasnacon campsite in Kinlochleven, right on the edge of Loch Leven. One morning we opened the tent door to this beautiful early morning view. The sun glinted off the low cloud over the hill opposite and reflected in the still water. The atmosphere was so peaceful and quiet. In the distance somebody was sitting in a boat as though they could have been there forever, just living in the present moment.

However, these moments must be appreciated as they are only fleeting. The sky quickly changed and it was also the calm before a big storm. We went out for the day and when we came back there was a very strong wind coming in from the Loch. There were several ruined collapsed tents abandoned by their occupants, but our 3 tents were miraculously still standing! They were small 2 man dome tents so the wind must have channelled round them without affecting them so much. One of our tents was a cheap one bought from a supermarket and it had withstood the wind just as well as our 'mid-range' one and our top of the range expensive one. The domed shape of all 3 must have been what made the difference between ours and other people's bigger squarer tents.

We had some wet towels to dry so we jammed them into the car doors to dry in the wind. No sooner had we done that a torrential rain storm started and everything was saturated in seconds.

At least this gave us a break from the midges which didn't like the wind and rain. The rest of the time at the campsite the midges had been the torturous price to pay for the stunningly beautiful surroundings. The campsite owner said it had been a particularly bad summer for midges and lots of people were leaving the campsite after only one night because they couldn't cope with it. If you have never experienced midges I can't describe to you how horrible their continuous swarming and biting every bit of exposed flesh is. It doesn't hurt but it itches intensely, and if you scratch it gets worse. We tried several different potions and lotions to deter them but nothing worked. The most effective thing was hats with nets which cover your face and neck.

We seemed to have pitched our tents in a wind tunnel, so we unpegged them and dragged them up the hill to a slightly more sheltered area and re-pitched there. The rain died down a bit and we managed to set up a tarpaulin to light a fire at one end so that we could still sit under it outside for the evening, sheltered from the not so heavy rain. There is nothing like being outside while camping when the weather is warm enough.

One of the things that made this campsite special was at dusk, deer wandered across from one side to the other. If you were quiet and approached them slowly you could watch them for a bit. Then one of them would notice someone make a movement and they would all run off. Some of the deer had proper big antlers but it was hard to get a good photograph because it was nearly dark.

This place holds special memories of the family being all together in such a unique place with all the experiences we had there. The painting is not just a celebration of the natural beauty of the place but a recording of a time which was important to us.