Jump to content




Landing Craft at St Kilda


Landing Craft at St Kilda

This was a very common sight at St Kilda in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, as the Army base on Hirta depended on services provided by LCTs from Cairnryan (initially).  This effort attempts to show the LCT 'Arakan' (L4003) on the 'hard' at Village Bay, in the late afternoon light.   I was familar with similar (earlier) LCTs when they served the RAF base in Tiree, and used Gott Bay for discharge and loading.  Fascinating vessels, and very useful.  They were noisy, though, and I could hear them a mile away when they were coming through Gunna Sound on their way north to St Kilda.  The picture has been painted quickly with Daler Rowney painting-/palette-knives, and this was the result of an afternoon's 'splashing'!  Knives allow (me, at any rate) more freedom and the use of richer colours, with better effects on sea, though there is less detail on the ship.  When the first painting dries (in 6 weeks' time!), I'll work over it again, to straighten lines, emphasise light and shadow etc.




    Donald E. Meek
    Oct 13 2010 02:54 PM
    Final version posted.  Some slight lightening of background here and there, but otherwise much the same.
    Definition between those cliffs is brilliant now Donald....lovely colours in this one and really love those pebbles...amazing how you can do this with pallet knives !

    Donald E. Meek
    Oct 13 2010 08:34 PM
    Many thanks, Debra.  Yes, you are quite right in noticing these failings in the first attempt.  Realising what was wrong, after I had looked at the effort for a few days, I adjusted the light to some extent, so that it sneaks round the northern end of Dun much more obviously.  I altered the colour of the nearer cliffs too.  One of the good things about palette knife is that it allows you to use lovely rich colours - so the painting looks more 'expressionist', and nearer to what JoLoMo produces, but definitely not as far along that road.  :laugh: I'm not going to turn into an 'expressionist'!  I want visual accuracy too - not boats that are leaning all over the place.  :idiot2: The pebbles and stones are done by using big blobs of titanium white and brown, put on in a haphazard way (to some extent), and then offset with black, delivered on the edge of the sharpest knife in the drawer.  Nothing fancy or skilful in my approach - just splash away!  What I liked about this one was the colours of the sea, especially in the foreground - I think I caught a little of the light blue/green that is such a beautiful feature of St Kilda.