Derek Springham: Original Paintings

Orkney

 

My wife and I have a long-standing love affair with Orkney. We first visited the small town of Stromness in 1989. Very shortly after, she bought a half-share in a tiny cottage in a little street about fifty feet from the harbour, which she kept until a few years ago. We no longer have the cottage but we still go back to Orkney regularly.

 

This view is just outside Stromness, looking across the Hoy Sound to Graemsay and Hoy. I was crouched down in a high wind, painting a landscape across two pages of a sketchbook when this boat came by. I did not dare to include it for fear of spoiling the landscape, but did a quick pen sketch with sploshes of watercolour on part of a sketchbook page. This was one of the most compelling pictures of the holiday, and I have here attempted a more detailed account in watercolour, pen and pastel.

 

 

 

 

Twice recently we hired a lovely bungalow looking out over Scapa Flow. This was one of our few sunny days and we walked about half a mile round the bay to get this view.