Duchess Cross - Iona

Original acrylic on canvas by David Page. 

This painting is one of David's new 2026 collection, Grit and Grace: Iona. 

Each painting in The Last Munro exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition, large-format book, featuring the full collection and David's insightful personal notes.

ARTISTS DESCRIPTION:

The Duchess Cross stands to the north of Iona Abbey, overlooking the Sound of Iona and facing the pink-red granite of the Ross of Mull.

In Book I (25) of Life of St Columba, Adomnán recounts an incident from a period when Columba was writing:

“One day, shouting was heard from the other side of the Sound of Iona. The saint was sitting in his raised wooden hut and heard this, saying:

‘The man who is shouting across the Sound is too careless to watch what he is doing. Today he will tip over my little horn and spill the ink’.

His servant Diarmait heard him say this and for a while stood by the door waiting for the clumsy guest to arrive so that he could keep him away from the inkhorn. But soon he moved away for some other purpose, and then the troublesome visitor arrived. As he went forward to kiss the saint, he upset the horn with the edge of his garment and spilt the ink”.

Like the spilled ink of this story, these paintings allow for the unexpected. The difference is that, here, such accidents are anticipated—and welcomed—as part of the process.

Want to learn more about the collection? Read David's full artist statement here.