Tom Mabon : Connections
"A cousin told me she would like to investigate the family Shetland connection. I had no idea there was one. It appears my forebears occupied the croft in the Burrafirth picture.
My dad had little or no interest in family history, apart from once saying ‘we come from Roxburgh, a village called Ashkirk’. As a ten year old this meant nothing to me.
Two years ago I started a sketchbook for our granddaughter with drawings and watercolours of places connected to our side of the family. A sort of pictorial family tree. The Ashkirk Borders road drawing has developed into the picture in the exhibition.
My wife’s sister and brother-in-law have a great knack for finding really comfortable accommodation on the west coast, and most of the island pictures are a result of their invitations to join them. There are very few spots without an artist connection. Some, such as Iona, are obvious, others less so. A photographer, printmaker and a couple of influential teachers from many years ago.
Our daughter owns an Elizabeth Blackadder drawing done on Harris, at Grosebay in 1974. I thought it would be an idea to make a drawing from the same spot, fifty years on. It was almost my last, as I slipped from the rock where I reckon she had worked from and connected face first onto the Harris tarmac.
The one picture which is significantly different in terms of location, is the Kyushu mountain landscape. At once very similar to the Highlands, yet completely different. Our daughter-in-law is from this Japanese island." Tom Mabon
