Spring Storm, Sandwood Bay

A great wave rears up out of the churning sea, its crest exploding into mist against a sky heavy with storm clouds. Beth Robertson-Fiddes painted this scene in 2010, capturing Sandwood Bay on Scotland's remote northwest coast during a spring squall. At the center of all that grey and white water, a glowing pocket of green and gold catches the eye, as if a single beam of sunlight has punched through the weather. That flash of warmth keeps the painting from feeling cold and turns the whole thing alive.

The artist has built up her surface with loose, layered strokes that let the water twist and foam in every direction. Sandwood Bay is not an easy place to visit, since there are no roads and reaching it means a long walk across open moorland. Perhaps that isolation is why the beach collected so many stories over the years, from mermaids seen resting on the rocks to the ghost of a bearded sailor said to wander the dunes. Even without the folklore, the mood here is unmistakably lonely and wild, a reminder of just how powerful the sea can be and how small we are beside it.