The Bridge

The Bridge, Emma Arthur, (Dec. 2014)

Walk from North Queensferry to Blackness Castle

This is a draft for a final piece called, 'The Bridge' which is an abstract landscape. I did a rough drawing then made this small art work in Photoshop to test out the idea. I used photos, drawings and traced other elements to create the final draft. This image tries to capture the essence of a walk I have taken since childhood. The walk starts in North Queensferry in Fife, takes you across the Forth Road Bridge, down into South Queensferry then towards the deer park at Hopetoun House. Finally, the walk finishes at Blackness Castle with ghost and all. There are so many special aspects to this walk but the real magic is to see nature next to this incredibly busy bridge. ( I have also roller skated across the bridge and cycled across it.) I have always seen the bridge design as elegant, going hand in hand with the beauty of nature. Somehow, this manmade structure belongs here.

I remember this bridge opening - before that you had to take the train or a ferry. Now a new bridge is being built as this one is unsafe for the amount of traffic it carries. The top right represents the rock they have cut into in order to create this bridge. When I first started the art work I used an old map on the top right which represented the ferry quay but this got lost in the picture while I was working on it. There were other elements that I wanted to fit into the collage, i.e. the entrance gate to Hopetoun House, the gravestones at Hopetoun Kirk and the ramparts of Blackness castle. I will try to see how I can include these or other aspects of the history in my next version. TThe historical and geographical aspects of this walk are powerful and I am unsure of how to tackle them.

Evaluation of this work

I feel this is satisfactory as an initial piece. However, there are a nuber of elements to consider when working towards the final art work such as balance, colour and focal point in particular. I decided not to put all the vertical cables in this version as I felt they would be overpowering. However, I may put them in a final, larger version. I also have to improve the right bridge cable - it needs smoothened out with Photoshop.