* JOHN MACKIE, EILEAN DONAN CASTLE pastel, signed and dated (20)15 58cm x 82cm (23 x 32 inches) Framed and under glass. Note: John Mackie was born in Glasgow in 1953 and studied at the Glasgow School of Art between 1972-76. It was there that he was first introduced to the Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Boys, admiring their bold use of colour and powerful draughtsmanship.He has exhibited widely for over 40 years at the Royal Scottish Academy as well as in the USA, Germany, London, Dublin and throughout Scotland. Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island in Loch Duich in the western Highlands of Scotland; since the castle's restoration in the early 20th Century, a footbridge has connected the island to the mainland. A picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film and television dominates the island, which lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) from the village of Dornie. Eilean Donan is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint martyred in 617. The castle was founded in the thirteenth century, and became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae. In the early eighteenth century the Mackenzie's involvement in the Jacobite rebellions led in 1719 to the castle's destruction by government ships. Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap's twentieth-century reconstruction of the ruins produced the present buildings.