Frances Macdonald, the chatelaine of Crinan, is many different things to different people. She is the personification of the hotel: independent, elegant, resourceful and characterful. To her many friends she is a warm, reassuring presence for whom resilience is expressed in humour and understanding. As an artist she has quietly emerged as one of the most eloquent observers of the West Coast and its islands. Her oil paintings, invariably made with palette knife, are always true to the time and place and are hard-won – she needs to be there, prey to the vicissitudes of weather (and human failure) to get the kit to the right place and the right time, to let the magic happen.
Included also in this show of new work are a few ‘gems’ garnered on a boat trip with friends in June, starting at Crinan, travelling up the Caledonian Canal, and finishing at Fort Augustus. She painted Ben Nevis from the boat and a romantic, dawn picture at Ardgour as well. A few works also survive from the previous year’s trip to Barra, Vatersay and Eriskay, alongside the familiar treasured views around Crinan.
