Tag Archives: sea paintings

St Ronan's Bay. Iona. Mixed media on 30 x 30 inch wood. Rose Strang 2026

St Ronan’s Bay. Iona

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Above: St Ronan’s Bay, Iona. Mixed media on 30 by 30 inch wood. Rose Strang 2026.

This is the bigger version of St Ronan’s Bay, and this one is for the Graystone Gallery in Edinburgh, possibly Edinburgh’s most popular contemporary art gallery. The owner, Lesley Briggs has an MA in the History of Art and worked with London’s prestigious Whitechapel Gallery

Here’s a zoom-able version and a photo of me with it to show scale…

I remember how excited I was to take a trip to the Whitechapel Gallery when we were art students. Lucian Freud’s work was showing and I was mesmerised by the way he painted the pink skin of a dog’s stomach in one of the paintings, at a typically odd setting and angle. Afterwards we all went to Jimmy’s Greek Taverna in Soho and I ate the loveliest lamb casserole ever. Happy days.

None of that has anything to do with my painting of course. I really fought to make this one translucent and vibrantly green. Layer after layer, building it up, then taking it into the shower to wash it off when I didn’t like it. All worth it to capture that wonderful sea-green of Iona.

If you like the look of this then contact The Graystone Gallery soon. Their summer exhibition launches in July, and people reserve paintings in advance.

More painting in a few days …

 

Eilean Calbha from Iona. Mixed media on 16×16″ wood panel. Rose Strang 2026

Eilean Calbha from Iona

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Above: Eilean Calbha from Iona. Mixed media on 30×30″ wood panel. Rose Strang 2026

It’s said that Hebridean sailors and fishermen refused to go to sea without a green stone in their pocket. They believed the sea would never drown someone carrying a piece.

On Iona there are two types of green stone. There’s the famous serpentine, a translucent, waxy crystal that runs in streaks through Ionian marble. The marble is softer and so the teardrop shaped serpentine left behind was sometimes called ‘Columba’s/Calum Cille’s tears’ and it was worn as a talisman by sailors.

Happily, given I’m not much of a swimmer, my engagement ring, made for me by Adam and taken from a piece of marble I collected on Iona when I was about 19, is made from marble seamed with serpentine.

But that green stone is very different from the greenish grey rock in the foreground of my painting, which is Lewisian Gneiss.

It’s named so for the Gneiss found on Lewis, which forms the incredibly elegant stones of Callanish.

We’re looking at the oldest rocks in Britain, among the oldest rocks in the world, formed between 1.7 to 3.0 billion years ago. That pre-dates complex multi-cellular life, so no fossils.

My painting doesn’t have serpentine crystal or marble in it, but that wave is almost exactly the colour. In the distance is Eilean Calbha, forming a barrier against the deep, wild Atlantic.

Eilean Calbha from Iona. Mixed media on 30x30" wood panel. Rose Strang 2026

Eilean Calbha from Iona. Mixed media on 30×30″ wood panel. Rose Strang 2026

Details …

 

I’ll be creating more paintings of Iona for other galleries this month, but today’s painting brings us to the end of this particular series of Ionian paintings for the Resipole exhibition: Facing West, which launches this July.

If you’re interested in this series, you can contact the gallery who will be happy to answer any questions – Resipole Gallery

Many thanks for reading about this series. I’ll be painting more in the next few weeks, so there will be more here soon.

In the meantime, dear readers, here’s an old Celtic blessing, derived and adapted from the Carmina Gadelica, and often recited on Iona …

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet Earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

 
 

'Caol Ì (Sound of Iona)'. Mixed media on 16x16" wood. Rose Strang 2026

Caol Ì (The Sound of Iona)

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Above: Caol Ì (The Sound of Iona). Mixed media on 16×16″ wood. Rose Strang 2026.

I’ve always found the name of the narrow channel of water between Iona and Mull poetic: The Sound of Iona, or in Scottish Gaelic, Caol Ì. Pronounced ‘Cuhl’ like the ‘u’ in ‘numb’. If you want to get fussy, the ‘L’ is pulled or rolled back in the throat, almost like a Spanish ‘L’. In original Gaelic, it means ‘narrow’ or ‘slender’. and  Ì simply means ‘Iona’, which is the original name of Iona, and is pronounced ‘Eee’.

It would have been called ‘Ì Chaluim Chille‘, meaning ‘The Island of the church of Calum Cille from the time Calum Cille arrived on the island but apparently it was always called  ‘Ì’. 

Hmm, that just means ‘island’ so they must have distinguished it in some way, in the name. Who knows?

Calum Cille was a powerful figure in the history of the Celtic Christian early church, which I’ve written about elsewhere. He was an exiled Irish prince and a well-trained warrior. However, it’s well-documented historically that he led a group of monks according to Christian principles, which you’d imagine would include peaceable ways.

Which brings us back to my painting, which attempts to capture the particular peace of gentle Hebridean rain, standing on Traigh Ban nam Manach (the white shore of the monks) looking towards Mull across the Sound.

In recent years, the Iona Community (an ecumenical Christian group on the island, who run religious programmes through Iona Abbey) have incorporated Celtic pagan forms of worship with Christian, which means a slant towards God in landscape and nature. This is a real Scottish tradition of the Hebrides, since there were not always churches in remote islands, so finding religious meaning in the clouds, the land and light or dark was just what people did.

Here’s a well-known prayer from Iona:

‘Silence.

Be still

and aware of God’s presence

within and all around.’

Here’s the painting again. Wishing you a peaceful week …

'Caol Ì (Sound of Iona)'. Mixed media on 16x16" wood. Rose Strang 2026

‘Caol Ì (Sound of Iona)’. Mixed media on 16×16″ wood. Rose Strang 2026

'Eilean Annraidh from Iona'. Mixed media on 16x16" wood. Rose Strang 2026

Eilean Annraidh from Iona

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Above: Eilean Annraidh from Iona. Mixed media on 16×16″ wood. Rose Strang 2026.
The above is pronounced AY-lun AN-ray, meaning The Island of Storms. I’m not worried about people stumbling over the Gaelic pronunciation of these paintings, given that everyone at The Resipole Gallery is familiar with Gaelic and will happily help anyone with correct pronunciation.
This series, including yesterday’s painting, and five more, is destined for an upcoming exhibition at the Resipole titled Facing West. Today’s painting, painted en plein air on Iona, is actually facing north east, but since Iona is in the far western Hebrides of Scotland, I think it counts as westerly.

'Eilean Annraidh from Iona'. Mixed media on 16x16" wood. Rose Strang 2026

‘Eilean Annraidh from Iona’. Mixed media on 16×16″ wood. Rose Strang 2026

This little bar of bright sand viewed from Tràigh Bàn Nam Manach (White Strand of the Monks) is very familiar to anyone from Iona, or anyone who’s visited. We were chatting with people who work in Columba’s Hotel on Iona, both of whom had kayaked there. They told me it actually protects the north east beach from storms, acting as a little breakwater.

Adam and I had dropped in there for a much needed coffee on our way back from painting, and Allie, one of the staff there, really loved the painting, so I asked if they’d like a print of it. They definitely did, so if you ever visit Iona and drop in to the Columba, you’ll spot it somewhere!
This view always looks so striking against the deep blue/purple drama of Mull, which is why this exact same scene has been painted hundreds of times. Especially since the colourists made it famous. They stayed at the nearby cottage of Lagandorain (place of the otters) while painting Iona in the 1920s or thereabouts, and it would take them just a few minutes to walk down to the beach.
Painting on the beach, the light changing all the time…

And a video…


More tomorrow, from the north beach, getting closer up to the sea…

Exhibition Saturday 19th July

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Coming up in just 9 days, The Edinburgh Festival Exhibition at The Graystone Gallery, Edinburgh!

Saturday 19th June, 2 to 4pm, Graystone Gallery

Here’s a litle vid showing the inspiration of Iona and clips of the painting process …

Storm Island

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Above. Storm Island. Oil on 50×50″ linen canvas. Rose Strang 2025.

Part of a series in progress for the Graystone Gallery‘s Edinburgh Festival exhibition launching to the public Saturday 19th July 2025 from 1 to 3pm

The photo below includes me to show scale …

The painting’s called Storm Island because it shows a somewhat abstracted view from the north beach of Iona to Eilean Annraidh, which means (you guessed it!) Island of Storm in Gaelic.

It doesn’t look remotely stormy from the shore, it generally looks somewhat tranquil, even mystical in the way that islands do until you’re on them. A sense of untouched purity with its white sand and luminous tuquoise water.

I can never capture in traditonal or realist paintings that feeling of mystery. Abstracting this painting a little, and painting from a place where I’m thinking of colour, shape and texture rather than what’s actually there, maybe gives more of a sense of that feeling.

The foreground suggests a rockpool. The rock pools on the north beach of Iona are incredible sometimes, you feel you’ve stumbled upon some sort of dragon’s lair, with this lime green water among the jagged jet black rocks.

I have one more of these semi abstract works to finish this week, then the series for the Graystone Gallery is complete. The exhibition launches with a preview on Saturday 19th July from 1 to 3pm. Hope to see you there!

Iona Sea, new exhibitions

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Above: Iona Abbey from North Beach. Oil on 30×20″ linen canvas. Rose Strang 2025

Today’s painting, above, is one of two landscapes for the upcoming Graystone Gallery exhibition in Edinburgh which launches on Saturday 19th July this year from 1 to 3pm

I’m taking these two landscapes as a starting point for two much larger abstract works for the Graystone, about which I’m very excited as I really awant to play with colour, mood and texture, not just views of Iona, lovely as those are to paint!

Just looking at my palette at the end of today is an inspiration!

More next week …

Iona Sea and new exhibitions in 2025

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Above: North Beach Iona, May. Oil on 30×20 inch linen canvas. Rose Strang 2025

Lots of exciting new projects coming up!

The painting above is one of a series I’m creating for the Graystone Gallery, Edinburgh for their Edinburgh Festival exhibition, which launches on Saturday July 19th from 1 to 3pm

The painting below is for the Limetree Gallery‘s upcoming Summer Exhibition which launches 3rd July. You can preview or reserve paintings now by contacting them on their website.

(If you’re interested in buying or reserving one of the paintings please contact the galleries direct on the links in the above paragraph, thank you).

I have another three at larger sizes for the Graystone coming up. Readers of the blog will know how much Iona means to me, and to thousands of other people who visit the island every year. It’s a special place I’ve been visiting now for about thirty four years and I’d say it’s one of my biggest inspirations as an artist.

The next larger paintings will be a bit more abstract, but I know that people find these paintings of turquoise sparkling water joyful, and so do I!

This series is doubly special since my partner Adam and I prepared the canvases ourselves with sretcher bars and raw linen.

I’ve kept the lovely texture and colour of the linen by using clear gesso. If you look at the close ups of ‘Sea Light, Iona’ and ‘Iona North Beach, May’ below, you can see the unpainted canvas …

More soon …

Seascapes

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Above: Sea Triptych. Oil on three 33×22 inch wood panels.

Below, some smaller works in this new seascapes series –

This series is part-inspired by the Aberlady landscape – which has been a focus this year in most of my paintings.

This style of painting feels very natural and comes easily to me, but I’m still working on expression of the Luffness woods and Carmelite Friary (in Aberlady theme). Sometimes there are too many ideas and it’s better to simply paint instinctively for a while until something more unified swims into focus.

The upshot is that I’ll return to that theme after a brief hiatus into my ‘default mode’ of moody seascapes!

More details soon …

More oil sketches …

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Above: Shorelines, Aberlady. I. Oil on 8×5.5″ wood. Rose Strang 2024

More oil sketches in progress today inspired by the shorelines and moods of Aberlady…

For my experimental paintings and ideas I’ve been working at this size for some time and it really works for me in terms of loose brushwork. It would be a bit of a nightmare to work at a larger size with this more experimental messy approach – that would be a lot of oil paint going to waste when it doesn’t work (which is often!) and a lot of physical energy and time expended.

It’s been a while since I posted a video of my working process. I’m very forgetful of such things but people seem to enjoy them, so one of those coming up soon.

I’m also still working on my Carmelite monastery and Crusader’s tomb series (see older posts) which are very different in feel to these smaller landscape paintings. I love the freedom of my smaller landscape paintings, but I think I have something more to say as an artist so I’ll be persevering with that series over the coming weeks. It’s important to get out of my comfort zone and dig a bit deeper …