Wild Hebridean seas a big draw for Ross Ryan’s sailing and painting adventures

Last September, the artist Ross Ryan set sail from Crinan aboard Sgarbh, a 40-foot wooden fishing boat dating from 1947. His plan was to make a 60-day solo voyage around the Hebrides using the boat as his floating studio, and the results of his adventure are now on display at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue, Ryan says that the idea of going sailing in the stormy months of autumn conjured up romantic images of “nursing the stove as the wind played tunes in the rigging” but that the reality was “somewhat less cosy.” That’s putting it mildly. Last autumn turned out to be even windier than usual on the west coast (anyone remember Hurricane Ophelia?) and Ryan says he often found himself “holed up in small guts waiting to be allowed to continue north.”