Painting on the Isle of Iona for a month during November and December (2014)

The journey that brought me to Iona began long before I arrived. As a Briton brought up in the culture of Christianity, Iona has an almost mythical reputation. Old family connections and that I already live on the West Coast of Scotland simply add to this mythology.

When I came across a bookbinding course held here last spring by paper artist Rachel Hazell it seemed a good way of continuing to learn how to make my own sketchbooks on an island I wanted to know better.The course passed very quickly and the weather could have been better but my appetite was engaged.  It fitted with painting at Treshnish on Mull and making tissuepaper cutouts on Barra one September. Last year I went on a self directed painting retreat to North Uist but for only a week. The temptation of a whole month was irresistible even if it was November, the first time I could get away, having attended the course in March.

Where better to start the month than to continue my book begun on the course led by Rachel, John’s partner.

  Some pages I made whilst on the Rachel Hazell Bookbinding Course here earlier this year.