Alastair Blain on the Mythic Landscape, Poems of Ossian and the Joy of Grief | The Cave of Apelles

The Scottish kitsch-painter Alastair Blain visits The Cave to convey his love for landscape painting and the importance of making it mythical. He is concerned with ancient tales like The Poems of Ossian, and claims they have wisdom or even medicine for us “if we can come to behold them from a universal perspective”.
Blain will also discuss how historical knowledge of the Western Scottish landscape has opened up its timeless dimension, as well as the challenges of painting landscapes in a studio.

The conversation was produced by Bork S. Nerdrum and assisted by Sebastian Salvo.
The centerpiece was landscape painting of Glen Rosa by Alastair Blain.

01:33 Introducing the guest
02:12 The Glen Rosa landscape painting
03:36 Life took me to New Zealand
05:21 Hungry Creek Art and Craft school
08:09 Oleg Korolev and the Academy of Visionary Art
17:05 The River Gryffe and the mythic landscape
24:55 Being craft-oriented and making your own tools
27:27 John Constable and painting inside VS outside
30:11 The Apelles palette is so blue!
31:08 Veiviseren (The Path Finder)
32:09 Influence from the poems of Ossian
37:04 Escaping the sad realities of modern life
43:44 Horatio McCulloch and Degas’ academy idea
47:03 The joy of grief and The Sick Child by Munch
55:03 Blain’s handmade brushes
1:00:25 Beautiful books and James MacPherson
1:05:50 Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool)
1:08:05 The tale about the piper called Alastair

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  • Apelles was asked why he touched and retouched his pictures with so much care, to which he replied:
    "I paint for eternity"