With 10 days to go until Largo Arts Week, here is a rather nice piece of art dating back around 75 years. Featuring boats tied up at Largo Harbour, the old salt girnel (later net house) can be seen in the background to the right, with fishing nets hanging up to dry alongside it. The drying nets and net house also featured in the older painting featured in a post last November (shown below).
Coming back to the watercolour above - this was painted by James MacLaren. According to various on-line sources, MacLaren was "an accomplished oil painter and watercolourist" based in Glasgow, who exhibited mainly between 1881 and 1917, including 17 works at the RSA. He produced many harbour scenes and serene landscapes and showed "a sincere understanding of light and composition".
A note on the back of the painting states that a former owner "watched the artist painting this". If the early 1940s date is correct then this painting would have been painted late in the life of the artist. Perhaps it was painted a little earlier. Largo has of course long inspired artists and the upcoming Arts Week shows that it continues to do so. If you have the chance to visit between 20th and 28th July, why not go along and discover the talented local artists of today?
www.largoartsweek.com