Little did I realise when I referred in my blog (15 Sept) to Anna Badar’s ‘answer’ to the bright light of Mull that I would quickly be applying that answer myself. I suspect it was the writing down of the thought about darkness, rather than the thought itself, which led me to making two dark landscapes in water colour in brief intervals over the weekend.

Both are of imaginary scenes, flowing straight off my brush across the page, but now they are finished I can recognise that both stem from waterscapes in Shetland. One (published in The Gallery on 31 October) is unconsciously of cliffs and sea at St Ninian’s Isle, a place actually visited in very bright, sunny weather, the best we had all week; yet without hesitation I painted it very dark, dark enough indeed to need a moon. Curious thing, inspiration.

And why did I use watercolour? – I don’t do watercolour. Purists will shudder to know that I got round that particular issue by using my favourite technique with oils – squeezing the medium straight out of the tube on to the paper. Perhaps that is not how water colour paintings are done?