Scotland lies between the 55th and 60th parallel north, the same latitude as Kamchatka, St. Petersburg, Alaska and Quebec. It has over 18 hours of daylight in June, less than 6 in December. In his book,The Idea of North, Peter Davidson introduced the idea of something he called ‘true north’ that everyone carries within them (and personal, different from geographic magnetic north). You can never arrive there; its always ‘up’ from where you are. The imagined North is usually assumed to be tougher to live in. It languishes in colder weather and there are fewer people around. Its harshness and loneliness is accentuated because the North has mountains whilst other parts of Britain have hills.

The Northern seas are part of the stereotypical Scottish landscape of the mind, which has in turn been portrayed as bleak and/or mystical, empty and/or abandoned, romantic or post-industrial wasteland. Any artist might incorporate the stereotypical elements into their world view. However, those who have resided in Scotland for an appreciable length of time might also be expected to have incorporated the actuality, what they could sense of the environment and absorb from the country’s culture.

John Schuler, 1957, The Wave.