The Pinnacles lay just off the coast at Seahouses and are a haven for seabirds and seals. I have made many watercolour sketches of them and their visiting wildlife over the years but this is a first attempt with oil paints. The scale of the stacks is always distorted by the state of the tide as you arrive, and the local boatmen always try to get you in as close as possible. On a large swell you feel like you are going up and down in a lift but the real drama is always the proximity, noise and smell of the birds. The difficulty in this painting was in trying to make it a serious piece of art as apposed to an illustration.