Painting the secret Bridge

 
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Painting the Secret Bridge

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In my dad’s diary from September 1966 was a clue…

A clue to where the family’s favourite painting was created…….
It led to an extraordinary adventure of discovery.

I took the train to Dumfies, cycled 40 miles to Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway and stayed at a little B&B in the one street town.  My parents had been inspired to visit by reading Dorothy Sayers ‘Five Red Herrings’ a who dunnit? featuring an artist’s colony.    

And the bridge he chose to paint is only remarkable from the water’s edge. The road crosses it in a second, you have no way of knowing it’s even there.  I needed the help of the nearby Kirkcudbright museum to locate it.

But it was worth it.

The tricky scramble down to the water’s edge revealed something unexpected. The exact moss covered stone my dad had put his easel on over half a century ago….

I imagined my mum boiling a little kettle of stream water on a simple fire from twigs. There would be fish paste sandwiches, some knitting, a little snooze.

Found a woodland stream motif. Painted til 4:30pm, walked back over the hills. Lovely day….” Wrote my dad.

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I recreated the painting in the same location. Now both paintings of Skyreburn bridge hang in the Kirkcudbright museum and you can buy limited edition prints of them…..

It takes an effort to find inspiration. But the rewards are outstanding…. Thanks dad for leaving the little clue!

Read more about my story on BBC Scotland website… here

 
 

 

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