My wife and I have been enjoying a new series on BBC iPlayer – Banjo and Ro’s Grand Island Hotel – in which interior designer Banjo Beale and his husband Ro turn a derelict building on the Isle of Ulva, off the coast of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, into a boutique hotel. “Hello”, I thought to myself, “something about that building seems familiar.”

I spent many happy family holidays on and around Mull between the mid-1970s and late 1990s. On each of the final few, annual visits, I would take scores of photos, in the hope that one day I would use that photographic reference to inspire wondrous paintings.

One of the relatively few paintings I did ultimately manage to make based on those photos was this one, which was made in 1996, and depicts Ulva House.

I painted it when three years out of art school. Trained as illustrator at Falmouth in Cornwall, I had naïve aspirations to forge a career for myself as a freelance illustrator. Looking at my painting now, I presume by composing this piece with so much sky I was hoping to persuade an art director of some publisher or other to envisage such a work on a book cover, with the title of this prospective book positioned over the sky. Either that or I just liked the feel of the ‘big sky’.

Quite happy with this painting at the time, I used it frequently to (largely unsuccessfully) advertise my ‘skills’ to potential clients. It now lives in a tatty old portfolio case, hidden out of sight, alongside hundreds of other bits and pieces of old artwork. It’s nice to see it again and give it an airing.

Ulva House was painted in acrylics on canvas, the painted area measuring about 34 x 25 cm. It looks like I cut the canvas down at some point, for a reason that now escapes me.

The TV series is thoroughly recommended. It’s great to see the journey of Banjo and Ro’s rescue and redevelopment of the building, and the production and editing of the series is a joy – it’s quirky, refreshing and avoids the annoying tendency of programme-makers to waste the first two minutes of each show giving away exactly what we’re about to see and spoil the adventure. Five stars all round!