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Findochty (pronounced Finichty in the Doric) lies on the Moray Firth, a few miles northeast of Buckie. It is a distinctive fishing village, with a large c-shaped harbour lined with whitewashed houses, sheltering in the lea of hill and cliffs behind. The town was served until 1968 by the railway from Aberdeen to Elgin so Fleming is likely to have come on the train when he visited in 1962. He has chosen the viewpoint across the harbour, which dries out at low tide revealing a dark beach, looking at a few boats, the village and church on the hill. Fleming was an acute observer of life and records a few telling details, lending a particular, ordinary humanity to the landscape: there are shadows of children playing, a man and his dog, curtains are drawn, a window open. Findochty is more than a pictorial representation of a fishing village, this is social realism. Perhaps we can hear the Christian song Will your Anchor Hold. Village life in 1962 centred around ship building, religion, football and music and by 1985 much had changed – shipping industry gone, railway closed and a much-reduced population. Fleming’s humanism, concern with the people and history of his kinsfolk, and originality as a composer of a painting were influential in Aberdeen – for example on his younger colleague Robert Henderson Blyth, and more widely as an etcher and watercolourist.
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