TEMPESTUOUS

My second storey flat is shaking in storm force winds. The windows and doors are rattling, as I look out over Breiwick Bay, where streaks of spindrift are lining the sea in grey and white. Two trawlers, their crews no doubt relieved at the imminent prospect of a steady deck under their feet, are battling their way through the last mile of their journey from distant fishing grounds to the shelter of Lerwick harbour.

Talking of trawlers, this week a friend commissioned a painting of the "Doreen Johnston, a steam trawler built on the Clyde in 1919. I remember her, in her last years in the late 1960s, as the "George R Wood", when she had been converted into an oil-burner. Her tall smokestack had been sacrificed to her new propulsion system, and she looked rather incongruous, but she kept on fishing for a decade after most of her contemporaries had been scrapped.

I am now halfway towards my target number of paintings for the Duff House exhibition in June. This means that I am slightly behind schedule, but, as the daylight lengthens, I hope to increase my workrate. By the time June arrives, I think I will be rather weary of painting historical fishing vessels. For my next exhibition therafter, my feet will be firmly on dry land.