Stirling Old Bridge - Artistic Licence

Bridge of Allan photographs is in the process of putting together a collection of images of the works of local artist: Bill Dunn. One of my friends sent me a photograph of her water colour of Stirling Bridge by Bill Dunn which she received as a gift from her father. Seeing the image reminded me of a water colour of the bridge that I had painted at night classes 20 years ago. There were similarities: the reflection of the bridge in the River Forth and the Wallace Monument and the Ochils in the background. I then got to think of the thousands of photographs that have been taken of the bridge . They either show the bridge and it’s reflection in the Forth or with the Monument and the Ochils in the background: not both because in reality the perspective is I impossible. It is the eye of the artists and their desire to paint the most aesthetically pleasing image that gives them the licence to create a new reality.