CROVIE
The film ‘Local Hero,’ was a family favourite when I was growing up. The VHS tape, grainy and worn, seemed to add to the atmosphere somehow. Pennan was the primary location for the film, it had been on my ‘to visit’ list for a long time.
Several years ago I spent a week there, painting and exploring the surrounding area.
EVENING, AUGUST Painting on the harbourside, Pennan 2019
“My accommodation for the week had an unbridled view of the beach and an even better view of a red phone box (fans of Local Hero will know what I am talking about).
One morning, I get talking to the man next door. He’s making the most of the good weather to do some maintenance work on his property.
A ladder leans against the wall and he tells me that he’s “not too keen on heights”.
A little while later, as I sit on the quayside, paints spread at my feet, sketch-book on my knee, I see the postman ride through the village on a motorbike, he stops to chat to my neighbour. A few moments later I notice that he has removed his helmet and has ascended the ladder. I smile, this place is not so unlike it’s cinematic counterpart.”
During that first trip to Scotland’s east coast, I visited a very special place which captured my heart and imagination. . .Crovie.
Crovie (pronounced Crivie), sits at the bottom of a steep red-earth cliff, just a few feet away from the waves; a row of stone cottages, gable ends, shuttered windows, caked in brine and bleached by the light; no road. When the conditions are right you can see the Northern Lights at play, then, in the Summer months you can watch the sun sink into the sea beyond the horizon. The following Summer I stayed in Crovie. I sat amongst the houses with my paints, trying to convey through my painting my obsession with this collection of pan-tiled roofs and conservation approved windows, all perched at higgledy-piggledy angles. Many of the dwellings here have been owned by the same families for years. I met a few residents of the bay during my trip. One neighbour knocked at my door one evening with freshly caught mackerel for my supper, another, Shona (one of the kindest humans I’ve ever met), offered me morning coffee whilst we sat and chatted about Joan Eardly’s paintings.
Since my first visit to this part of Scotland, I have noticed a change; a busying; a developing; new houses up on the hill; an aluminium extension here and a hot-tub there.
I had at first been taken aback by how unspoilt the area was. Portsoy harbour looked beautifully derelict – no cramped outside cafe seating or gift shops selling driftwood wind-chimes! Perhaps this is what makes it such a popular location for the film-crews (Peaky Blinders and Whisky Galore have both been shot at Portsoy over recent years). The 17th Century harbour buildings remain unchanged and dolphins can often be spotted just offshore.
BANFF SERIES 1i
It was undoubtedly the under-development to the architecture and landscape which led me to paint in a frenzy, lest it should change right in front of me. By the end of that first visit up to Aberdeenshire, the spirit of the place had lodged firmly in my heart, I couldn't help but sense, with some sadness, the wave about to break.