Glan Catacol, Arran

Ernest Taylor was a multi-talented artist, who worked in oil, watercolour, etching and in design. Early in his career he worked in furniture design in Glasgow and would sometimes make trips to paint on Arran. After his marriage to Jessie M. King in 1908, he moved to Manchester where he designed stained glass for George Wragge Ltd. In 1911 the couple went to Paris where they established an art school - the Shealing Atelier. However, the outbreak of war just a few years later forced them to return to Scotland and they settled in Kirkcudbright where King already woned a house. They spent summers on Arran running a summers school at High Corrie and the Taylors were instrumental in the founding of the Dumfries and Galloway Fine Art Society.   Their exposure in Paris to modern French art and in particular to the design for the Ballets Russes, influenced both artists. In Taylor's work it is particularly evident in the dramatic outlines he began to use, as in this Arran scene. Back in Scotland they came under the influence of the Scottish Colourists. Samuel J. Peploe was a close friend who often visited them in Kirkcudbright. Taylor produced many landscapes in both watercolour and oil and his developed style was altogether more bold and dramatic than his early work.