Seeing some children playing on the beach in the sunshine last week reminded me of the iconic Tiree paintings by Duncan MacGregor Whyte. Although he was born in Oban he had a strong connection to the island through his grandfather. In 1899 he gained permission to build a wooden studio at Balephuil and he built his studio at Ceann na Creige overlooking the beach at Balephuil shortly afterwards. He stayed, and painted there, with his artist wife Mary Barnard, for most of each summer, in the years that followed.
Between 1911 and 1922 he travelled and lived in Canada and Australia undertaking commissions and building his reputation. From 1923 he became a regular summer visitor to Tiree again and became well known for his bucolic Tiree landscapes and scenes of daily life on the island. His paintings are a visual record of times past and a way of life now only dimly remembered. He died on 3 December 1953.
