In this episode, we’ll be visiting Voe Of Papa Stour by James Kinnear at the Shetland Museum & Archives. Welcome to Art, Culture & Books with me, Anthony King.
Voe Of Papa Stour was painted by Edinburgh born artist James Kinnear in 1900. He was born in 1846 and specialised in coastal landscapes. Like me, you may have initially thought that “voe” translated as “view” in some kind of Shetland dialect but no, “Voe” is a term used in Shetland, Scotland, to refer to a narrow inlet or bay. “Papa Stour” is one of the Shetland Islands, known for its rugged coastline, sea cliffs, and archaeological sites.
I had the privilege of travelling up to the Shetland Isles in one of those crazy adventures. I had to take a ferry journey from Aberdeen which took around 12 – 13 hours, which was quite eventful. Any visitor to Shetland must visit the Shetland Museum & Archives, which I really enjoyed and I really liked the staff too. In fact, I can’t convey enough how friendly and welcoming the Shetland people were, although it is a different kind of place to mainland Scotland in many ways … maybe even a mix between Scotland and Scandinavia. We’ll return to this later though!