Landscape, Art, Nature, Birds.
Summarising My Old Blog
Fourteen years and ten days ago – 9th February 2012 – I posted my first ever blog post. It came after a period of long interesting art-nature-writing chats with my great friend and fellow artist Kittie Jones. I had been offered the opportunity of having a book published, I was very excited and I was very uncertain. I wanted the book to contain my artworks and my writings, not someone else’s. But did I know how to write?
I did already write often, but I didn’t really think of it as writing. I was an artist, not a writer. I wrote what I was seeing while I was out in nature – what wildlife, what weather, what thoughts. I wrote poems sometimes. Nonsense rhyming verse inspired by Edward Lear and Dr Suess – I was always quite pleased with these. And not-nonsense stuff, about landscape and fantastical things (these I found mortifying to read back afterwards). I loved trying to find the right words, getting them onto paper. The sensations it gave me were and still are very similarly satisfying to those I get when sketching - when it’s going well. Sort of peaceful, yet exciting. A wandering, wondering, zippy-mind feeling with all these fizzy bursts of satisfaction and realisation. Actually I really love it.
Conversations with Kittie helped me to see that yes, I could write, of course I could write. She suggested I start a blog to get more practice, specifically to get more practice at writing my outdoor nature-art-exploring experiences as this what my book was to be about and this what I was realising I loved so much.
So, on Thursday 9th February 2012 I published my inaugural blog post, titled, What this blog will be - Scotland, landscape, art, nature, birds. Here it is:
“Hello, I'm Leo du Feu. I'm a Scottish artist, a painter of landscape and nature. I live and work in Linlithgow, near Edinburgh, and exhibit in galleries around Scotland and the UK.
I anticipate using this blog to show what I'm working on in my art and also as an encouragement to me to write – I find writing brings a similar satisfaction to sketching and painting. Birds are also a passion and it'll be good to be able to post some of my birding experiences here.
My interests in art and environment come together in an ongoing project to explore Scotland by rail. I've been getting to know countryside and towns along various lines, sketching as I go. The project has been possible thanks to the support of ScotRail for the past four years. I intend to post accounts of my railway explorations on this blog, detailing walks, sites of interest, flora and fauna to be seen, etc.
I hope that'll do for an introduction, now here's one quick encounter with a bullfinch:
male bullfinch, 23.12.09
In the latest edition of RSPB's Birds magazine David Lindo writes in his 'Urban Birdwatcher' (http://urbanitybirder.blogspot.com/) article about the decline of the bullfinch. (Since their 1950s-1970s peak the UK population of these beautiful chunky birds has severely reduced in number, due probably to changes in farming practice and woodland management.)
Anyway, David talks about the song of the bullfinch and the fact that most of us aren't even aware it exists. Certainly until I read his article I thought the low plaintive whistle was the only noise they made. But this morning, walking to my studio, I stopped to look through my binoculars at a flush pink male in a tree across the canal and realised that his black-wedge beak was moving - he was singing! A lovely, gentle, unassuming burble. So I can confirm that yes, bullfinches do indeed sing!”
https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-this-blog-will-be-scotland.html
I was started! I really loved blogging and posted one or two or even three new posts a month for the next eight or so years. After the next paragraph, the remainder of this post will highlight some (lots!) of those posts. I’ve loved dipping back into them to write this for you.
Citizen Science
I posted descriptions and summaries of various volunteer bird surveys I undertook for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), sometimes including sketches I made as part of these days in nature. In particular I wrote about the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) I did along the Union Canal from my childhood home in Linlithgow, and about the Breeding Bird Survey I did twice a year in the hills between Garelochhead and Loch Lomond. Those were two great routes, and both have now fallen away from me in this phase of life. I have loved remembering them through reading some of my old posts while making this new one. Here are a few:
Introducing my BTO Wetland Bird Survey Union Canal walk -https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/10/counting-canal-birds-linlithgow-to.html
Including an otter and 38 bird species - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2013/01/2013-january-bto-waterbird-count.html
Including a mole! “On towpath, in water, now back in its hole..” - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-mole-on-towpath-in-water-now-back-in.html
And the excitement up being up in the hills for BTO Breeding Bird Survey - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2019/04/bto-breeding-bird-survey-hill-count.html
Including a cuckoo - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2015/05/garelochhead-bto-bbs-bird-count-first.html
Campaigning
We need to sort out plastic - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2017/02/we-need-to-sort-out-plastic-garelochhead.html
Exhibitions and calendars and cards
I wrote posts sharing the artworks from some of my exhibitions, and advertising my annual art calendar and greetings cards. I love that my calendars and cards offer a way for everyone to have my art in their homes.
2019 calendar and winter cards - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2018/11/2019-calendar-christmas-cards-order-now.html
Callendar House exhibition, 2024 - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/12/artful-exhibition-callendar-house.html
One-off adventures and happenings
I wrote one-off posts about, well, things.
An amazing Transatlantic adventure - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-york-art-birds-atlantic-on-queen.html
Sketching a chamber choir in rehearsal in internationally famous Rosslyn Chapel - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/03/sketching-song-in-rosslyn-chapel-again.html
My favourite place in Scotland (Can you guess where it is?) - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-favourite-place-in-scotland.html
My lovely 99 year old Jersey Granny - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/07/woodhall-spa-dunston-99-year-old-granny.html
Birds
I wrote about birds. Such as this incredible close-up totally unexpected encounter with an osprey on the River Tay at Perth - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/07/yesterday-afternoon-i-watched-osprey.html
Art Ideas
I shared art ideas to inspire creativity in others. I’ve been a lead artist on Scottish charity Art in Healthcare’s outstandingly good Room For Art social prescribing programme for the past decade, and worked with them for years before that too. When covid came along we were no longer able to run our weekly in-person sessions so I moved online with a series of Art Ideas posts.
Charcoal. It’s been around for a while. - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/10/art-ideas-charcoal.html
Turning sketches into paintings - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/08/art-ideas-turning-sketches-into.html
Thinking about Outer Space - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/07/art-ideas-thinking-about-space-outer_30.html
Painting without brushes - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/06/art-idea-painting-without-brushes.html
Window Views. (I do so love windows in art) - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/04/art-idea-window-views.html
YouTube
I started a YouTube channel in a similar vein to my Art Ideas posts. It’s still out there somewhere - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2020/05/leo-du-feu-new-youtube-channel-film.html
Other art workshops
I shared images from some other workshops I ran. Just LOOK at some of these kids’ creations:
Often posts overlap, as do the many varied activities in my full, fulfilling, chaotic, creative, all-over-the-place art life. This post for example, is about a session I ran for Art in Healthcare, and about a railway day out - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2023/03/scotland-by-rail-edinburgh-gateway.html
And now for the key thing my blog has been about these past 14 years.
Scotland By Rail – Community Rail Champion
My second ever post, Friday 2nd March 2012, was titled, Painting Scotland by Rail - Sponsored by ScotRail - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/03/scotland-by-rail-sponsored-by-scotrail.html
“Since 2008 I've been working on a long-term project to explore Scotland by rail. As part of this my artworks have been exhibited at various railway-related events across the country. The sponsorship of railway operator ScotRail is absolutely invaluable to me in continuing this project.
I hope that my railway travels and the resulting drawings and paintings will encourage others to explore Scotland for themselves. Train is a great way to travel. It gives access to a wealth of wonderful landscapes and there's nothing quite as relaxing as sitting by the window and watching the world trundle past.
view from a window, on the Glasgow - Stranraer line, pencil on paper, 15x21cm
It's fun to write a list of all the birds seen on a journey and really satisfying to make quick sketches out the window. There's only a second or two before the object or scene has been passed and memory and artistic license have to kick-in. Some of these quick window sketches of mine have been used to create often much larger finished paintings back in the studio.
cottage remains, steep forest clearing south-east of Elgin, pencil on card, 10x11cm
For those who commute - travelling a route regularly needn't make it boring, in fact quite the opposite. I now know to look for that clifftop herd of bison on the approach to Aberdeen, or those small ponds on the right between Falkirk High and Croy where mallards and tufted ducks swim and you sometimes see a few teal that have flown in to join them. Or south-east of Elgin the remains of a cottage among stumps of felled trees - what family or railway worker once lived there?
In these postings I'm going to write about days out I've had along Scottish railway lines. Looking initially at the West Highland Lines from Glasgow to Oban and Mallaig I'll describe walks walked and wildlife watched. I'll mention interesting historic sites and probably wont be able to resist telling you about some of the cafes I visit... I do hope that you too will be inspired to get out on the trains and start to explore Scotland by rail.”
Here’s a selection from over the years. I have so many more you can explore.
West Highland Way Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/03/railway-walk-bridge-of-orchy-to-tyndrum.html
Loch Ossian eco-hostel trio. Hostel accessible only by train and by foot. Stunning stunning location.
- https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/04/three-days-in-scottish-highlands-loch.html
- https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/04/loch-ossian-loch-treig-bothy-back-then.html
- https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/05/loch-ossian-u-shaped-valley-overhead.html
Cruachan Dam, The Hollow Mountain - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2012/08/loch-awe-to-cruachan-dam-castle-kirk.html
Dundee - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/03/scotland-by-rail-dundee-dragon-penguins.html
Moving house, to Burntisland. Discovering our local hill circle walk - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/01/scotland-by-rail-burntisland-fife-hill.html
West Highland Line, Inverness to Mallaig, sketching the whole way - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/04/scotland-by-rail-west-highland-line.html
Mallaig – the harbour - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/05/scotland-by-rail-mallaig-boats-gulls.html
From Mallaig, over the sea to Skye - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/05/scotland-by-rail-mallaig-then-over-sea.html
Snowy New Year in Kingussie - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-year-2012-2013-in-kingussie-walks.html
Montrose dolphins - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/07/scotland-by-rail-montrose-dolphins.html
Montrose. Family sketching, terns, beautiful gardens, Elephant Rock & Boddin Limekilns - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2014/08/scotland-by-rail-montrose-scotland.html
Scotland’s brand new (newly re-opened) line! The Borders Railway. This was a really great walk, a countryside circular, passing Walter Scott’s Abbotsford home - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2015/10/scotland-by-rail-tweedbank-abbotsford.html
Scotland’s brand new (newly re-opened) railway again! The Leven Line. -https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/06/scotland-by-rail-scotlands-brand-new.html
Falkirk High to Callendar Park and Callendar House - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2024/12/scotland-by-rail-falkirk-high-to.html
And sooo many more. 91 in total. Explore them via the Scotland By Rail tag on my old landscapeartnaturebirds blog site.
The tailing off
By around the time of having our second child in 2021, the blog platform I was using was being more and more glitchy and cumbersome, less and less enjoyable to use. My mental health was also going badly downhill, though I didn’t properly understand that, and I just couldn’t make myself get on with all the things I needed and wanted to do. Putting together posts was deeply frustrating rather than the fun it used to be. The number I was publishing dropped drastically and never recovered.
Out of Anxiety
I’m delighted to say that although the blog never picked back up, my mental health did, brilliantly so. In 2025 I shared intimately to my art emailing list (message me to sign up), to my social media followers, and in a blog post, opening up about the mental health journey I had been on. Through years (decades in fact) of not-understood, unaddressed, chronic anxiety, to breakdown, to a new, truly, wonderfully, excited, inspired me! - https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com/2025/06/journey-out-of-anxiety-transformational.html. This still remains the final post on https://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com. And that feels perfect.
Now I have this beautiful sparkly new website, with blog included. I can’t wait to get started.
—Leo du Feu, March 2026
