Tain coo toasted as quirky Easter Ross creation finds landmark spot in city to help boost coffers of Highland Hospice
THE distinctive style of a Tain-based artist has been given a prominent showcase in front of a Highland landmark as part of a quirky trail raising funds for a cherished charity.
Inge Smith has succeeded in transferring a unique whisky-inspired design from a sheet of A4 paper into a head-turning Highland cow standing proudly in front on St Andrew's Cathedral in Inverness.
It's part of a fundraising trail created by Highland Hospice with the lovable creatures springing up everywhere the end-of-life care charity has a shop.
Anyone contributing to the fundraising effort could be toasting Ms Smith's creation with a 30-year-old malt courtesy of Tomatin Distillery which sponsored the piece.
Her idea for The Angel's Share theme – the amount of distilled spirits lost to evaporation from the barrel or cask into the air as the whisky ages – went down a treat with the distillery which then kickstarted her creative endeavours by sending whisky bottle labels, boxes and a welcome sample of their dram.
She said: "The Angel's Share is such lovely expression I couldn't believe I nearly never thought of it! What could be more typically Scottish than Highland coos and whisky. I secretly hoped a distillery might spot it. As I had some spare workspace I was able to get the coo before Christmas – lots of time to panic about how my design on A4 paper was going to translate to a huge 3D object."
Getting the labels gave her the confidence to start after she gave the creature a blue base. Adapting angels based on her Christmas card designs, she added the pot still shapes around the base using germinating barley grains to fill in areas. The woolly fringe turned out to have the perfect ripple effect for representing spring water.
She admitted: "It still took a really long time to paint, much changing and over-painting. It was much harder than the two squirrels I did in 2019 for the Go Nuts trail. But I think it turned out better. Challenging but fun! When we were asked to think of a name for the coo I was really stuck. The Angel's Share is not really a name, it's more the theme. I read a bit about the history of the distillery. Tomatin means The Hill of the Juniper. Juniper wood was used to heat the stills as it gives off no smoke in the days of illegal distilling, which no doubt went on in that area by moonlight...
"Walking along the road, trying to work out a name, I passed a Juniper bush, looked up and there in the sky was a pale moon. Juniper Moon. Tomatin loved the name and if you look closely you will find lots of little juniper sprigs and moons.
If you make a donation for the Highland Hospice Heilan Coo pages on Facebook or scan the barcode for Juniper Moon you are in with a chance to win a bottle of Tomatin 30 year old single malt.
She said: "I try to do a few things for charities every year, so painting a coo was a project made for me. Highland Hospice does such valuable work and they have the best charity shops!"
Related: Colourful coos set for release across region for Highland Hospice
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