The Gallery is ever changing as paintings are sold and new ones added.

There is however a recurring theme – Fishing Boats.

The old wooden fishing boats ‘Margaret’ and ‘Beth’ that once lay forlorn and no longer sea worthy on the Coble Landing in Filey have long been inspiration for my paintings.

Battered, crumbling and weather distressed these coble style craft may seem a sad sight as they now rest in a car park away from the sea but the very nature of their look, their flaking paint and exposed wood bring a vibrancy and variety of colour and interest.

So it is with the wooden fishing boats on the Isle of Mull. Beached near the roadside in Salen these once working vessels now lay with timbers washed by the tide.

There’s a beauty in their demise – great colourful hulks of wood lying like creatures from the deep aching to return to the sea.

And not forgetting ‘Island Home’ an old fishing vessel on the Isle of Lewis. First seen out of the water near Uigean several years later we found it, along with her skipper, in Cnip.

With large sections of timbers and upper structure removed it lies with its ribs exposed like some beached whale – sad but equally beautiful.

I regularly return to these boats as inspiration for paintings. They reflect a time past but the paintings reflect their vibrant and colourful future.