‘We go with them to North Rona, in the far seas beyond Caithness, to the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles with its miniature railway for hauling stores from the jetty; to the Shiants and, triumphantly, to Sula Sgeir, further out even than North Rona, an outcrop of dark rock sheltering a gannetry, and with the barest clinging of a few hardy weeds . . .’
Mark Valentine explored the Isles and wild seas with Robert Atkinson in his article on Island Going in Slightly Foxed Issue 50, beautifully illustrated by Paul Kershaw’s woodcut of Stac Lee, home to part of the world’s largest colony of northern gannet.
About the contributor
Paul Kershaw was born in York in 1949. He trained as a teacher and taught art for twelve years but left to concentrate on printmaking, teaching himself the art of wood engraving. He settled on the Isle of Skye in 1986, and much of his work is a personal response to the landscape of the island and north-west Scotland. He uses a hand press to print in both black and white and colour, and sells his work in limited editions. Paul is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers and exhibits regularly in their annual exhibitions.