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Highland Cow

Material :: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions :: 66 cm x 91 cm (Incl. frame)

Remember the ice age, the dawn of mankind
When sabre-toothed tigers roamed free
A cold snap can happen, the winter will come
Wrapped up in my fur I will be.

Alive and quite happy, while munching away
The mist from the moors rolling in
For up in the Highlands, away from the sea
When the warm days are over, the nights just begin.

The woods give me shelter;  my horns, my defence
The grass grows wherever I eat
My kindness, like milk, flows, sustaining my calves
And you, if we ever should meet.

Our days are all numbered, but still I am bred
To stomp in the peat and the heather
To butter your tastebuds or stand in the rain
There’s never the wrong kind of weather!

Callanish Stones

Material :: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions :: 89 cm x 115 cm (Incl. frame)

Fifteen hundred years or more this awesome, magic ring
The thirteen stone disciples guarding Hebridean Isles
Our shadows dance in moonlight, Hogmanay and Highland Fling
The sun bowed down and sets again, yet stays here for a while.

The ebb and flow of life is here, for when you wonder why
That planets were the focus once – a mystical suggestion?
The Chamber Tomb, a central stone to guide your compass by
With guards in rows of Lewis rock ignoring every question

For sure, there once were druids here, who prayed and often preyed
Devotion is a drug to drink and savour skye juice with
MacLeods for generations lived, and worshipped here and strayed
To pastures new, to conquer, and a new impression give.

Before them, all those Nicholsons, who came and made this home
And afterwards, Clan Mackenzie up to Stornoway gave chase,
And ever season, every year some changes froth and foam
Yet always and forever here, these Standing Stones in place.

An ordered life, and lives to rule, and rules to keep peace in
It stands to every reason that the crops and tides obey
So wordship and we know that every winter has its Kin
And answers come when stones are struck: a sun or moon cause-way.

Quiraig, Isle of Skye

Material :: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions :: 76 cm x 104 cm (Incl. frame)

Storr Lochs: those eyes that gaze
at sparkles over Skye
The Old Man knocks, then to amaze
takes swigs of peaty rye.

The Needle’s in the ridge, you’ll find
The riddling pinnacle
Fresh air to breathe has been designed
Sanctuary from the cynical

The Prison of the Trotternish
Three points for driving fast
The summit good behaviour dish
The meal while daylights last

See all you want and all you can
Up Staffin to Uig Rad
The largest known landslide clan
The giant Norse Man Dad

The Sunshine Seat of Clan MacLeod
The Brownie shy Hobgoblin
For Fairy pools the quiet crowd
Seeks pathways clunk with cobbling.

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Paintings are available for you to bid on until after the Exhibition, at La Galleria, 5 Pall Mall London SW1 4UY , on 11-16th November 2019, when the auction ends and Paintings will be delivered.

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Gallery

Sunset Gushing Waterfall, Henrhyd, Wales

About Francis

Francis Salvesen has loved painting since childhood, winning the Art Cup at school in Edinburgh. He used to leave the latch of the art room windows open and nip back during his free time to spend hours continuing the paintings he was working on! There were few formal lessons in how to draw or paint, so what you see is a rare example of a self-taught artist. Throughout his life, Francis has surrounding himself with portraits of his friends and enjoyed painting large and detailed pictures as gifts. For the last few years this painting activity has been frenetic, from dawn till dusk. Other business and intellectual activities have been squeezed into the canvas-stretched day! Francis is one of those unusual artists who is good at both arts and sciences, playing the piano by ear, composing poetry, writing letters and even a published book, and at the same time a ‘Masters standard’ expert on business and a graduate of Economics and International Relations. He was the 'ideas man' who created a mobile smartphone 'blackberry killer'; innovating and persevering in the development of two windfarms; presenting projects all over the world on mobile banking and immersed in policy generation for the UK, particularly in trade. Oh, and he co-founded one of Britain's most successful theatre companies!

What you see in his paintings is the love of aesthetics – the beautiful, natural surroundings that are reflected epitomise the love of life and appreciation that we live in a beautiful world and, indeed, that art can create happiness.