Port Bhan, Iona

Cadell first visited Iona in 1912 and made repeated visits to the island thereafter, often spending entire summers in the western hebrides in retreat from the hubbub of life in Edinburgh. Cadell's Ionian landscapes found ready buyers at the time. In 1920, Cadell was joined by fellow artist, Peploe, whom he introduced to plein air painting in the Inner Hebrides. According to Roger Billcliffe, Cadell was a well-know figure on the island which was a continuous source of inspiration, 'its great attraction was its light and the rapidly changing colours of sand, sea and sky caused by the wind blowing in the clouds from the Atlantic. The fields, hills, farms and beaches of Iona never failed to offer Cadell some new subject ... he became a 'weel-kent' figure ... remarked upon as much for his eccentricity as his talents as an artist' (see R. Billcliffe, The Scottish Colourists, London, 1989, p. 41).