From snorkelling in crystal-clear Hebridean waters to hand-printing sea-inspired designs, Bonnie Wood’s life and art on the Isle of Islay capture the quiet beauty of island living.
INTERVIEW SUSIE ATKINSON
I’m floating just off the coast of Islay, face down in the water, my body suspended between the air and the seabed. The water is startlingly clear, below me, threads of golden kelp sway with the tide, their movements slow and hypnotic. A flash of iridescent blue catches my eye – a nudibranch, one of the tiny sea slugs I’ve become quietly obsessed with.
This is where many of my ideas begin – not in a sketchbook, but here, in the silence beneath the waves. It’s not unusual for me to leave the house with a parcel of cards to post and my snorkel kit in the boot. A quick dip after the post office run often turns into an hour-long exploration of this rich underwater world. The Hebridean coast is full of surprises. It’s a world I’ve spent the past few years documenting and recreating through print.
ISLAND LIVING
I live on Islay, part of the Southern Hebrides – a two-hour ferry from the mainland, and a lifetime away from my previous career in project management. For the past 14 years, this island has been home to me, my husband and our daughter. We live beside a nature reserve, where golden eagles and hen harriers trace the skyline, and the sea is never more than a few minutes from view. I’m a printmaker, working primarily in linocut, though recently I’ve begun to explore monoprinting using drift seaweed and other materials gathered from the shoreline. My work is deeply inspired by the coast – not just its surface beauty, but its ecology, its textures, its shifting moods.
As with many people, lockdown prompted a re-evaluation of how I was spending my time. I’d always loved making things – sewing, crafting – but I wouldn’t have called myself an artist. Then, in the quiet months of early 2020, I bought a lino cutting kit for myself, my husband and our daughter, who was seven at the time.
We began carving together at the kitchen table, inspired by the wildflowers we passed on our daily walks. I started sharing our designs on social media, and they resonated – perhaps because, in a time of great disconnection, they offered something grounded, local and joyful.
STARTING A BUSINESS
I set up an Etsy shop that summer. At first, it was friends and family placing orders. Then strangers. Then enough interest to build a dedicated website, and ultimately, to leave my day job. Since then, Islay Prints has grown into a small but steady business. I now sell my work through my website and via a number of stockists both on the island and the mainland. Many of my designs – cards, prints, lampshades, tea towels – are still printed by hand in our home studio.
My earliest prints were focused on flora: thrift, bluebells, wild orchids, bog cotton. But gradually, my work has been shaped by the sea. I’ve always loved the water – I grew up in Norfolk, sailing off the salt marshes of the north Norfolk coast, and spent as much time as possible on or near it. But it was only after moving to Islay that I began sea swimming.
At first it was a dip here and there, something social and lighthearted. Then, a few years ago, a visiting open water coach introduced us to front crawl with heads-down breathing in the April sea. It was freezing. But it was also transformational.
SEA SNORKELLING
Soon after, I took up snorkelling. The clarity of the Hebridean sea is extraordinary, and I was quickly drawn into this vivid and unfamiliar world. Peacock worms unfurling like underwater fireworks. The soft architecture of kelp forests. Strange, beautiful creatures I’d never seen before, like the nudibranchs – delicate, colourful sea slugs that look like living illustrations. I began taking a camera with me, and what I saw under the surface began influencing what I was creating above it.
My style of linocut is a bold, structured medium – not always ideal for expressing the movement and complexity of the sea. So I began experimenting with monoprints, using drift seaweed gathered from the sea shoreline. Each piece is unique – an impression taken from real organic material, sometimes layered over with inked forms and figures. My Christmas cards that year featured seaweed prints, and this summer, I’ll launch a new linocut inspired by Islay’s seagrass meadows – one of the UK’s most vital marine habitats.
As the business has grown, so has my awareness of the importance of giving back. We’ve donated to Plantlife and Butterfly Conservation, and we are donating a percentage of the profits from my new seagrass project to the Marine Conservation Society. I’m currently researching seagrass conservation organisations to support through the sales of my new work.
Conservation is central to our family life. My husband is the reserve manager for the RSPB on Islay, and nature is always part of the conversation in
our home. We are immersed in it.
DON’T WASTE A GOOD DAY
Life on Islay has its rhythms, shaped by tides, ferries, weather. A typical day starts with a dog walk in the hills, or a run along the coast. Mornings are often spent printing, fulfilling orders, wrapping parcels. I work with around a dozen stockists, so much of my time is spent preparing stock or managing logistics – this is a creative business, but also a working one.
If the sea is calm, I might take my snorkel kit to the beach after the post office run. Afternoons are for sketching, planning new designs, photographing work, or working on my sustainable clothing line, which features my prints on organic cotton.
My daughter, now 12, plays the bagpipes and does Highland dancing. Most weekends, she’s off competing, performing, or in the sea with her friends on paddleboards.
We live close to our community, and when the sun shines, everyone drops what they’re doing. There’s a shared understanding here that you don’t waste a good day – you take your picnic to the beach, grab your wetsuit, walk out into it.
My work is about capturing those quiet moments by the sea and turning them into something lasting. A lino print of a swimmer. A seaweed monoprint on cotton paper. A design that brings the outside in. The coast gives us room – to think, to breathe, to create. It reminds us that change is natural and inevitable. The tide goes out. The tide returns. We pay attention. We begin again.
To find out more about Bonnie and her work, go to islayprints.co.uk and follow her on Instagram @islayprints and @islaysnorkeller.
