Sanday artist Bill McArthur’s seascape oil paintings depict the interaction between sea, sand and wind around his home island in Orkney, and around other Scottish islands.

Bill McArthur attended Edinburgh College of Art (School of Drawing & Painting) and Edinburgh University (Fine Art Department ), graduating in 1963. He then moved to London where he worked as a Junior Art Director with J. Walter Thompson Advertising before returning to Edinburgh to develop his own successful screen-printing business in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

In 1977 , he sold the screen-printing business, bought a fishing boat and moved with his wife and family to the island of Sanday in Orkney off the north coast of Scotland and spent twenty years working at sea around Orkney, the Hebrides (as far afield as Rockall) and in the North Sea as far east as the Norwegian Sector.

During this period, the harsh daily working environment made an enduring impression. Wave action and the way in which strong winds de-naturize water, turning it from a liquid substance to flying wind-borne spray, became a constant fascination. Equally fascinating was the way in which tide influences a wave’s profile, and the effect of rocks and shallow water on how a wave disburses its energy. However the round-the-clock demands of commercial fishing meant that there was little time for converting daily observations into visual art, though the experiences were deeply etched in the mind.

Bill's gallery, which for the duration of the Covid emergency is trading entirely on-line, is located at the north end of Sanday, close to Start Point Lighthouse. It features both oil and acrylic seascape paintings all of which are framed and ready to hang.

Contact Bill directly to enquire about a piece or to purchase a painting.

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