The Moray Firth 1914

James McBey made this etching of The Moray Firth sometime in the early 20th century using, I imagine, a copper plate and some pretty harsh acid! The resulting image feels both light and dense, depending on where you look. I sympathize with McBey here, as I think he really captures the spirit of his location. You can feel the breeze in the air and the warm sunshine as you look out over the water. The scene shows a group of children sitting on the edge of a hill, their backs to us as they watch boats sail past and kites fly high. The artist’s marks are economic, but the whole scene is full of implied movement. It makes me think about Whistler's etchings of the Thames, but here McBey is doing his own thing, recording a very specific time and place. It's about a shared experience and how artists borrow from one another across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting—etching—is a way of embracing ambiguity.