A Sense of Belonging
I have been busy lately with local craft markets, one of them being Caithness Horizons Ancient Ancestors’ Festival and as I sat there mingling with the Vikings (as you do!) I thought about them in relation to the history of Caithness but also as a movement of people. When they invaded in the 9th Century they would have brought their wives and children with them in order to settle and make a home. Not only did they make their mark in the names of the region but they infiltrated the genealogy of the area too. This was just one of the many mass movements of people that this landscape has witnessed.
Having been commissioned several times and having a following from around the world I know that there are many Caithnesians who are now scattered in the far corners and being a southerner moving up I am aware too of just how many outsiders are moving in. Movements of people are still happening albeit not in such a ruthless manner. It always intrigues me to hear the various stories as to how people have got here. Some want to escape the rat race, others have followed relatives up and others simply fell in love with the place. But much as different people settle here and call this place home it never loses its character or its unique feeling. Far from the people shaping the landscape, which inevitably they will to some degree, I would say the biggest influence is how when these people have settled, the landscape has shaped them.
I have been hearing about more and more people wanting to trace their family history and find out where their family lineage stems from. And why not? A big part of who we are is where we have come from.. From names, to having a tolerance or a preference to a climate, to what we wear, to how we speak, to how we behave, all of this, a landscape can have an effect on.
I remember when I first came I was entranced by the castles that scatter the coast line every few miles and being Wick-based now I am lucky enough to be sandwiched between 3 castles; The Old Castle of Wick, Sinclair Girnigoe and Ackergill Tower. My favourite being Sinclair Girnigoe. I love how it was developed over hundreds of years, each generation adding to the preceding layer, imprinting on the ancestral home. In much the same way homes and houses are developed over the years, but the core remains the spirit, the essence that has shaped each generation.
Caithness will never lose its ability to strip back, to take off all that is unnecessary. I am not sure if it is the wind blowing off all excess baggage or just the fact that the landscape brings you back to yourself! But I have never been anywhere where I have felt so whole or complete. There are no distractions up here. No built up areas, no traffic jams, no city complexes. I wrote in my journal at the very beginning ‘I love my beautiful surroundings. I am just so inspired. I have never, ever felt like this anywhere else. It is truly beautiful, but it’s more than that. It’s like Caithness calls to my soul and my soul responds. It’s wild, rugged, remote, untouched. All of the elements, all of the seasons, masculinity and femininity, richness and poverty, fullness and sparseness converge in this one remote corner of the world’.
I love it when my paintings are sent abroad now and know that they are receiving a piece of home; a piece of belonging.
