Northton

I was staying at Scarista House on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and nipped out to the shop at Leverburgh on a dull late afternoon. At Northton, on the way back, I saw beautiful light and streaming cloud on the North Harris hills, behind animals grazing, the dunes and the grey sea.

This is an ICM (intentional camera movement) photograph, to emphasise atmosphere over detail. It’s one of my all time favourites, and shown here as a a diptych; two stretched printed canvasses, each 34 x 106cm, with white sides.

Tideline

Today I’ve been thinking about the sea, and the Hebridean islands in particular. It’s such a long time since I’ve been. This painting evokes the smell of the sea in salty winds, the churn of the surf on the dark rock and weed.

It’s mixed media, 12 x 12” on cradled birch board. See more in the gallery.

Hebridean mists

This set of four are all printed on wrap-around canvas on cradled board, each 60 x 40 cm. ICM (international camera movement) images, they were taken in the Outer Hebrides, to evoke something of the magical feel of the islands.

Top left are hills by Mealish; top right the incredible Callanish Standing Stones - a sight, in the gloaming mist, that I will never forget. Beneath is the churning sea below Breanais, looking over to Eileen Mhealasta, off the remote far western coast of Lewis; and on the right, a streak of sunset reflected in Loch Smuaisebhal.

Estuary

The Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides offers shifting views as the tides move in and out and the sand, the peat in the water and the reflections of the blue sky combine. This is an ICM photograph on stretched printed canvas, 34 x 106 cm with white sides. It takes me right back to the shore at Luskentrye, sitting with flask and sandwiches, watching the surreal scene unfold.

Luskentyre

Luskentyre Bay, Harris: ICM photograph on canvas

I can recognise Lusketyre Bay, on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, just from the colours. The clarity of the water, the fast moving weather that gives an intensity to the sky and its reflections, the pinky purple of the peat coming down from the hills into the sand and sea… the colours look unreal, but they’re not.

This ICM photograph whistles me back in my mind to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

ICM in photography means internationally moving the camera to blur and thus emphasise the feeling - essence, perhaps - of the subject by reducing detail.

This image is printed onto stretched canvas, 107 x 71 cm.

Skye croft

Here’s where I spent New Year, with a couple of big jigsaws and a bottle of malt.

On the east coast of Skye, it’s a tiny croft by the shore of the narrow waters separating Skye from mainland Scotland. That’s the other side in the picture - cattle were swum across, rather than driven round the long way.

Driving north from Manchester through the high winds and torrential rain of Storm Frank I’d wondered whether the Skye Bridge would still be open (the ferry was cancelled) but it was much calmer over on the west. The last twenty minutes was the spectacular climb up and over from the main road to Kylerhea, with the reward, when you come over the final ridge, of the little white croft-dots of the tiny hamlet spread out below . ‘Turn right by the red postbox and it's first on the left.’

Lovely to climb out of the car, walk to the edge of the water and exhale. Decompression time.