#illlo

After Peter Seddon: Memories Construct a Different Picture - Essie Stewart is playing the accordion again for Richard Burton in Altnaharra

I’ve been thinking a lot about Peter Sneddon and a set of pastel drawings reproduced based on the Highland Clearances. I first came across them in the book ‘As an Fhearann’ published by Mainstream Publishing/ An Lantair and the sadly no longer Third Eye Centre in Glasgow.

What He Says

Illustration by by Natalie Adkins

2018

Illustration by by Natalie Adkins

Sketchbookings for Fishermans’ Song for Attracting Grief

It seemed an appropriate metaphor somehow and how sitting in front of countless fires on Scottish islands we listened to songs taped from records and the radio and with each recording and playback the songs faded and became more muted and the recollection of who was singing sometimes faded with them as the whisky took hold and everything became a half-truth disguised as truth.

I remember ‘A Fishermans’ Song for Attracting Seals’ and it was a traditional tune from North Uist and we’d sit and listen to it over and over again, imagining the tune disappearing up the chimney like so much smoke and whisky talk and drifting slowly across the strand towards the waiting seals.