2026 - CENTENARY
The year 2026 marks 100 years since the birth of artist Syd Walker. To mark the centenary year, Syd's daughters, Fiona and Kirsten, held a selling exhibition in Montrose, which was hugely popular and will be repeated later in 2026. For more info click here
Syd Walker pop-up event, November 2025 - Photos - Kim Cessford/DC Thomson
Syd's largest and most ambitious work, the immersive panoramic painting of Montrose Basin, was too big to include and remains in storage, although the sisters remain hopeful that a permanent home for it can be found. Details of the last time it was on display in Montrose Museum can be found here
Syd Walker Panoramic Display - Montrose Museum, October 2018
To commemorate the centenary, below is a section of the short story 'The Heart of the Mud' written by Fiona and inspired by Syd's panoramic painting of Montrose Basin.The story was written for the Scottish Wildlife Trust and was included in their 2025 anthology 'Words of the Wild' that can be viewed here
Copyright: Copyright (c) 2017 Jarek Szaranek/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
“This huge expanse of water would rise and fall, dictated by the moon, without anyone turning on a tap or pulling a plug. It didn’t smell like the beach on the other side of the spit of land that is Montrose. Here the air felt thicker, more alive, a place where two worlds meet. The fresh river water from the Grampians and the salty sweep of the North Sea being married by the tide. It was land and water that fought a battle twice a day and each of them won.”
