Did I just meet a Huldufolk

Meeting Isle of Skye Artist Bill Lawrence, maybe.

I had just finished a hike in the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, I was blissfully exhausted as I drove back to my lodgings looking forward to relaxing with a wee dram in front of the huge fireplace.

While driving back to the shoreline BandB called The Flodigerry, I happened upon a small crofters house, It had a simple sign on the outside that read art gallery.

I like art and figured why not check it out, now, you need to understand this is the only home insight, there are no other houses and nothing but glorious craggy mountains to the east and the Atlantic to the west.

Parking is impossible because it's a one-lane single pass road with no shoulder, so I parked the car pretty much in a place that seemed safe, as close to the side of the road as I could.

I was planning on finding the place locked up or out of business, it was a pretty tattered looking small house. The sign said '"Open" I pulled open the door and a gust of warm air hit me and I hear this little voice "hello, welcome"

It was Bill Lawrence, sketch artist, he stood no more than 4 and a half feet tall, which was the perfect height for the croft.

I was sun and windblown from the hike, he welcomed me in and offered me some tea. I looked around the tiny space and the walls were covered with his pencil drawings of Skye, his drawings also laid neatly stacked 6 inches deep on every available space.

His wife was upstairs in the living quarters, at least that's what he said.

He invited me to sit down on a tiny sofa, his desk was near a window with 10 small coffee cans filled with color pencils.

The view out of the window was pretty inspiring, with blue mountains of the isle of lewis in the faraway distance and flowers in his back yard that went all the way to the shoreline.

There were these strange fluorescent orange plastic balls strewn about, I don't know what these orbs were. maybe buoys of some sort?

He was using them as his art creation, a backyard sculpture if you will.

We talked, a bit about life on Skye, and if he felt lucky or not, to have spent his life there. He said except for the gale-force winds he loved it.

He had no television and he had just gotten a cell phone in case of emergency but didn't know how to use it.

He said he enjoyed talking with me, but since I had recorded our talk, he felt I should buy a piece of his work, I said for sure!

I picked out one with a simple crofter house on off white paper. He said he had just finished it yesterday. He then proceeded to wrap it in bubble wrap, the bubble wrap had a weird reflective quality to it.

He was on his knees on the floor wrapping it, mentioning that he was a good wrapper and securing the corners kept it from shifting.

He said in a tiny voice, "I'm a good wrapper of these things."

He then said he had to stop talking because he had Parkinson's and it made him weak and that he would have to disappear to sleep for a while since he had made his daily sale.

I took the drawing and put it in the backseat of my car and drove off.

I returned to my room and couldn't find the drawing. I went back to my car and it was gone.

I tried to find a number to call to see if I left it behind but remembered he said he didn't have a phone or do social media. I asked the people where I was staying if they knew Bill Lawrence and they said no.

I was in Portree yesterday, the biggest town on Skye, and went to a local art shop, a very cool place, and asked if they knew artist Bill LAWRENCE, I said he is a short tiny man, pencil artist, beard, lives out on Trotternish,

and the owner said, "No, I've never heard the name"

Sadly, I left the Isle of Skye the next day sans my pencil drawing, for the Braemar gathering and hoping to see a border collie event on my way there.

As I drove off the Isle of Skye, I thought about the artist Bill and how seemingly strange my visit was to his croft house studio.

I had read a few stories about Huldufolk, and how people in Iceland and Scotland do believe in them still to this day.

After the drive to Braemar, 200 miles, I came to a conclusion.

I really don't think old Bill Lawrence or his painting will be showing up any time all that soon.

Were Bill Lawrence and the artwork he made really real?

On the Isle of Skye in particular, people still believe in Huldufolk, elf-like spirits,

I think I might have met one named Bill Lawrence!