The Wrong Way Round!

I was brought up in Ayr and knew the outline of the Arran hills by heart as I painted them so often. In 1990 we moved as a family to Campbeltown and lived there for six years. Our manse looked over Campbeltown Loch to the hills of Arran … but they were the wrong way round!

Nearly all my Arran paintings were of sunsets and from our new perspective the sun rose over Arran. The light was completely different, the shadows were ‘wrong’ and it didn’t look like my Arran at all. Not once in our six years there did I paint the view. But I found I could catch the scene in words, especially the sunrise. The simpler the words were the more they seemed to reflect what was happening in front of my eyes.

Perhaps the problem was that I overthought the view when simple words just let it happen. Overthinking is rarely a good idea.

Sunrise over Arran

the sun’s fingers

stroke

Arran awake.

stretching her hills

into the morning

she eases off

her cloud pyjamas

puzzles for a while

what to wear

then dresses

in a floral print

Written for the Scottish Fellowship of Christian Writers and used by kind permission.