I love the sky in this painting (as well as the view, which is of Arran from Kilchousland, South Kintyre), and chose it to contrast with the Winter view from the same vantage point in the previous post.
A later painting than the Winter scene, it also shows how Dad’s style developed – particularly when he settled on painting either in acrylics or water-soluble oil colours after his stroke, when he was dis-satisfied with his work in watercolour. He continued to paint in watercolour on occasions, but often portrayed the skies in acrylic or gouache.
To be honest, I sometimes disagreed with Dad when I saw an unfinished watercolour and he told me that he was struggling to get the sky painted to his liking. I’m sure for him, he felt the strain of trying to recapture the subtlety of watercolour, which had come so easily before, while the more robust method of working in acrylics gave a more assured result. However, I could find no fault with his handling of the paint and I suspect it was more that he had not been able to achieve what he saw in his mind, rather than a failure of execution. He still had tremendous skill; it was more that he could not bend it to the vision as readily as in his earlier years. In Daybreak on Arran, however, the clouds have a solidity which emphasises the drama of the moment.