Entrance to Erchless is a richly coloured landscape by Victoria Crowe (b. 1945) depicting a path through a dense forest during a sunny day. Crowe employs her usual technique of using similar colours layered atop each other to create textures and a richness to her work. Using dark brown and green in thick lines amongst the lighter colours, Crowe captures shadows of some of the trees and smaller foliage to show the sun is shining down through the canopy. Crowe also captures tracks on the path with contrasting dark and light patches of green and brown. Setting the richer colours in the foreground with the muted green, yellow, and brown in the background allows Crowe to build depth in the piece to convey a sense of what a dense forest would appear like to the natural eye. The smoother lines of Crowe's lighter colours also creates a blurring effect that adds to this depth and allows for some of the clear sky to come through in the piece, creating a serene forest pathway. The title of this work suggests this may have been a forest road leading to Erchless Castle, located in the Scottish Highlands. Crowe was known to paint landscapes in the highlands because of her interest in capturing the serenity of the Scottish countryside. 

Victoria Crowe OBE ARSA RSW FRSE, born 1945

Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, Crowe studied from 1961 to 1965 at Kingston School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. She has lived in Scotland since 1968, when Sir Robin Philipson invited her to become a part-time lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, where she has taught ever since. She lives in the Borders with her artist husband, Mike Walton. A painter of still lifes, interiors and landscapes, she is also an accomplished portrait painter. Among her sitters have been the Earls of Wemyss and March, Tam Dalyell MP, Tom Morgan, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Tom Johnston, Principal of Heriot-Watt University.
Crowe's work, whether oil painting, watercolour or drawing, is instantly recognizable. Her distinctive palette and themes have been enriched by visits to Italy, Madeira, Egypt and India.