sandra ratcliffe

A Creative Journey

When I first started painting, my friends didn’t really take me seriously, but neither did I.

I’d read that to be taken seriously, I’d need to think like an indecisive squirrel crossing the road! Apparently, I should have crazy hair, wear flamboyant clothes, and surround myself with original art that ‘speaks’ to me.

Thankfully, I didn’t do any of those things. I just enjoyed myself with no other goal than achieving something in a sketch book, on canvas, or on board, that was my best translation of how I saw nature. I didn’t aspire to be a great artist; I was just doing something that was deeply personal to me using descriptive language with a vibrant palette.

I started painting about 25 years ago after a lengthy career in journalism. I was born on the Isle of Bute where I grew up surrounded by wild and beautiful scenery. There were always artists painting en-plein air on the island beaches, including the late James ‘Stirling’ Gillespie who was a prolific painter on Bute and who was married to my English teacher at Rothesay Academy.

I later found out that one of the Scottish Colourists, George Leslie Hunter, was born on the island, the son of a Bute pharmacist.

There was certainly an abundance of creative air – you couldn’t live on Bute without being inspired by the surroundings. The towering peaks of Arran’s ‘Sleeping Warrior’ to the west, Rothesay Bay (immortalised in Dinah Maria Craik‘s ‘anthem’) and the Kyles of Bute leading up to the apron of Argyll to the right.

This verse from an iconic folk song sums up what artists see:

It’s a bonnie bay at morning,
And bonnier at the noon,
But bonniest when the sun draps,
And red comes up the moon;
When the mist creeps o’er the Cumbraes,
And Arran peaks are gray,
And the great black hills, like sleepin’ kings,
Sit grand roun’ Rothesay Bay.

Although I had loved art at the Academy, a rare position came up as a junior reporter on the local newspaper, The Buteman. I had enjoyed English so I gave it a go, my art taking a back seat as I followed a career in journalism, eventually becoming a senior features writer on Scotland’s largest selling daily newspaper at that time, The Daily Record.

It was an exciting and challenging career which, over decades, saw me covering everything in the news, interviewing celebrities and royalty, and even covering the immensely sad funeral of Princess Diana.

I never planned to return to art, but I took early retirement from what was

often a very stressful job and moved to a wee cottage at Loch Fyne where two of my neighbours were professional artists. They invited me to go out painting with them in their little group of hobby artists. And so I started painting again for the first time since school – and I loved it!

We had a wee exhibition in Strachur Village Hall and I made my first sale – a tiny painting for £15!

Later, I moved to South Ayrshire and continued painting, joining the terrific Ayr Sketch Club where I am still a member. It is the perfect place to paint the seascapes I love.

The West Coast of Scotland is magnificent for landscape artists. I paint the weather in all its moods and strive to capture wonderful storms as well as sunsets and big skies.

I love that there are many more people being encouraged to take up art after years of working and raising families. Excellent Ayrshire artists Joan Lawson and Gillian Park share their experience and artistic skills to encourage people like me to channel their energy and creativity into art.

Having managed three years of further education at Glasgow School of Art (a dream back in my Rothesay Academy days!) to learn where I could improve composition, values and what does and doesn’t work in a painting, I am now a member of Paisley Art Institute, the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Society of Scottish Artists, the Glasgow Society of Women Artists, and Ayr Sketch Club.

I became passionate about art, and I hope that is conveyed in my work. In fact, I would go so far as to say it saved my life! After a hectic career I needed to de-stress and getting lost in painting was a godsend. I still regard it as my therapy and it is gratifying that I have been able to help charities, including Ayrshire Cancer Support who helped me so much when I was undergoing my own treatment. I am one of the lucky breast cancer survivors as I am still in remission eight years on.

Here in Ayrshire, we are immensely privileged to have The Maclaurin Gallery, set up by The Maclaurin Trust. It has space for local artists as well as many prestigious world-class exhibitions. Ayr Sketch Club’s annual exhibition opens there in January.

Although my paintings appear regularly in exhibitions, including at The Maclaurin, and despite having enjoyed solo exhibitions in Scotland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates, I still suffer from imposter syndrome. I’m always amazed when someone buys one of my paintings! But it is an enormous privilege to be part of the Ayrshire art scene, and so far I’ve managed to avoid thinking like an indecisive squirrel crossing the road when I stand at the easel! On the other hand, maybe I should give it a go…