Contemporary Art

Why Artists Return: Duncan Shanks and Cora Linn

22 July 2026

Romey Clark

Why Did Duncan Shanks Keep Returning to the Falls of Clyde?

Why do artists feel drawn to a particular place? What makes an artist return to the same view time and time again? Just as Paul Cézanne repeatedly returned to views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, producing more than eighty paintings of the mountain, Duncan Shanks felt a similar pull towards the Clyde Valley, particularly the Falls of Clyde.

One might assume that painting the same view repeatedly would become dull. For Shanks, however, this was far from the case. He treated the Falls as his muse, and just as a lifelong muse changes and ages, the Falls appeared differently to Shanks on every occasion. The changing light, weather, and seasons continually transformed the landscape, ensuring there was always something new to observe and portray.

What Is Cora Linn?

Cora Linn is one of the four spectacular Falls of Clyde, situated near New Lanark in South Lanarkshire. Named after the Gaelic coire, meaning “cauldron”, it is the largest of the Falls, where the River Clyde plunges through a dramatic wooded gorge.

For Duncan Shanks, Cora Linn became far more than a dramatic beauty spot. Returning throughout his career, he found endless inspiration in its constantly changing light, flowing water and shifting atmosphere, making it one of the defining subjects of his work.

Illustrated: Duncan Shanks R.S.A., R.S.W., R.G.I. (Scottish 1937-) | Cora Linn, 1985

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Painting Movement Rather Than Detail

Rather than recording the landscape with photographic accuracy, Duncan Shanks sought to capture the experience of being in it. His paintings prioritise movement, atmosphere and energy over literal description.

Water, always flowing and never remaining still, is captured through Shanks' sweeping, dramatic brushstrokes, which conjure the sensation of the cascading Falls without depicting them in literal detail.

Duncan Macmillan, author of Scottish Art 1460 - 1990, describes Shanks' approach by stating that,

"He has developed in the painting of water a kind of synthesis between the methods and the autonomy of Abstract Expressionism on the one hand and the description of the objective world on the other."

This explains how Shanks blended two different artistic approaches in the one artwork. To make the painting feel as alive as the rushing water, he used energetic, expressive brushstrokes that conveyed the emotional experience of standing before the Falls.

By combining these dynamic, abstract brushstrokes with careful observation of the natural world, he captured not only the appearance of the river but also its movement, energy and atmosphere. Through layering paint and applying it richly to the canvas, Shanks also created an atmosphere of depth. The varied thickness of the paint emphasises the depth found in the landscape where water flows over rocks and foliage overlaps.

Illustrated below: Cora Linn by Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons | Duncan Shanks R.S.A., R.S.W., R.G.I. (Scottish 1937-) Cora Linn, 1985 | Cora Linn, Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Landscape in Constant Change

Reflecting on Shanks' paintings of Cora Linn, Duncan Macmillan writes:

“The result in paintings like his Cora Linn is landscape on a historic scale. It belongs to the late twentieth century, yet Jacob More would have understood it completely.”

This highlights how Shanks’ work successfully bridges traditional landscape painting with a distinctly modern, expressive style. He returned to Cora Linn not because the landscape remained the same, but because its changing light, weather and movement offered something new each time.

^{Quotations are taken from Duncan Macmillan’s}^{Scottish Art 1460–1990}^{, p. 401.}

Department

Contemporary Art

Specialist

Romey Clark

Associate Specialist, Fine Art