“St Kilda is the most impressive place I have ever painted – went” I’m so glad I
“Firstly, I went out to South Uist, and then on to the Monach Isles, where I went ashore briefly but I had to move the boat in the night. I left for St Kilda on the 5am tide, journeying for another three hours. It was incredible and I saw dolphins, whales and basking sharks.’
When St Kilda appeared on the horizon, there was still a long way to go and the swell was savage.
“All my food got soaked and the horizon was at about 45% so I had hundreds of birds above as well as below me. When I finally reached Village Bay around 8am, the swell made landing impossible so I set off around the sea stacks. They are like nothing I had ever seen anywhere in the world and I spent the morning taking pictures and absorbing it all, as this was what I really wanted to paint.”
Across the garden from the Merlin’s Den that is Alan’s studio, is his gallery. As I stand and take in walls covered with his eclectic work, it is his recent portrayals of St Kilda that instantly draw me. What is perhaps even more astonishing is that he made the 515km (320-mile) round trip alone in such a tiny boat, and not only coped with the dramatic Atlantic swell that makes these islands so notorious but returned to recreate the awe-inspiring maritime scenes so perfectly.
Seeing them brings a lump to my throat and transports me to my own visits to St Kilda. I can hear the gannets, that clamouring cacophony, and I can even smell the pungency of their guano as the low cloud that tantalises the tops of the stacks like Indian smoke signals adds an ethereal mystery to Scotland’s wildest seascape.
Sadly, though Alan’s trip was an epic, he was shocked to see that the insidious plastic peril with which the world now battles had even reached this previously pristine environment. He witnessed a gannet flying past with a plastic bag trapped over its head.
“Though I never saw another boat, I am sad to say I saw plastic floating like massive jellyfish on the sea. It is something we really have to tackle. St Kilda is the most impressive environment I have ever painted and I am so glad I went. There is simply nowhere on earth like it.” Alan’s gallery is open to the public from March to December, Monday to Friday 10.30am to 4pm. Other times by appointment on 01967 421 616. www.alanbhayman.com