Backyard Campers
Original by Adam Barsby
Our Moon
Original by Adam Barsby
Mark Spain
Mark Spain trained in technical graphics at Medway College of Art before setting up a printmaking studio in Kent producing original etchings. In October 1987 he was commissioned to produce limited edition etchings of Kew Gardens and has since undertaken many other commissions, with clients ranging from National Westminster Bank to The Dorchester Hotel. His work has also been represented by several leading publishers and distributed worldwide.
Mark has exhibited in numerous exhibitions and one man shows including the prestigious Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Show, The 20th Century British Art Fair and The Barbican Contemporary Print Fair.
A vigorous and creative artist, he is constantly experimenting with different subjects and techniques which are then applied to an amazing variety of images from traditional landscapes to dazzling collagraphs.
Since joining Washington Green in 2000, seven of his originals have been published as limited editions and silkscreens. Mark’s work has been exhibited in galleries all over the UK and can be found in private collections round the world including Spain, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, USA and Canada.
Speaking about his work, Mark comments, “Having experimented with many forms of imagery in recent years, figurative work has been the most challenging and satisfying. My main goals are always to create a certain amount of movement within the image, with particular emphasis on setting a mood and atmosphere.
“I would like the viewer to be intrigued as to the possible thoughts of the subject, which can only add to the effect of the picture. Pictures I believe must have a life of their own to allow an ongoing interest.”
Jack Vettriano
Born in Fife, Scotland in 1951, Jack Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer. For his twenty-first birthday, a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.
In 1989, he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy and his new life as an artist began from that point on. Over the last twenty years, interest in Vettriano’s work has grown consistently. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York.
2004 was an exceptional year in Vettriano’s career; his best known painting,The Singing Butler was sold at Sotheby’s for close to £750,000; he was awarded an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts and was the subject of a South Bank Show documentary, entitled ‘Jack Vettriano: The People’s Painter‘.
From 1994-2007, Vettriano was represented by Portland Gallery in London but the relationship ended in June 2007. In 2008, Vettriano undertook a variety of private projects, including the launch of a new book, Studio Life, and commissions to paint portraits of Sir Jackie Stewart and Zara Phillips, the latter of which was part of a charity fund-raising project for Sport Relief, the experience of which was captured in a documentary broadcast on BBC1 in March 2008.
In 2009, Vettriano was commissioned by the Yacht Club of Monaco to create a series of paintings to mark the centenary of their world famous yacht, Tuiga. The subsequent exhibition, ‘Homage a Tuiga‘, premiered in Monaco as part of Classic Yacht Week in September 2009, before touring to the UK in 2010.
In 2010, an exhibition of over forty new paintings, ‘Days of Wine & Roses‘, was officially opened at the Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery in Fife, by First Minister, the Rt Hon Alex Salmond SNP. The exhibition then toured to London, opening at Heartbreak in September 2010.
In December 2011, Vettriano’s self-portrait, ‘The Weight‘, went on long-term display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, when it re-opened after a major three-year refurbishment programme.
A major Retrospective exhibition to mark 20 Years of Vettriano’s career, will opened at Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow on the 21st September. The exhibition runs until 23rd February 2014. For further details, please visit the dedicated Retrospective website HERE.
Vettriano divides his time between his homes in Fife, London and Nice. Jack Vettriano is now represented exclusively by Heartbreak Gallery in London.Heartbreak Publishing is the official publishing company for all Jack Vettriano merchandise.
William Dobbie
William Dobbie was brought up in the East End of Glasgow, one of two children. His artistic abilities were recognised during his school years where he won gold and silver medals for art.
He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1977. Since then he has built his reputation at home and abroad. His work hangs in private collections in America, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as throughout the British Isles. Commissions have been undertaken for major companies, national charities and one of Scotland’s leading advertising agencies.
He was official artist to the Tall Ships visit to Greenock in 1999.
Avril Paton
“I am an artist who has been living in the city of Glasgow since 1983. As you will see in the following pages there are several themes in my work. However, it is for my depictions of Glasgow people and places that I am best known; in particular, the painting shown opposite, entitled ‘Windows In The West®’. When this was first exhibited, after completion in 1993, it immediately struck a chord. I am glad to say it still does, and it has, quite literally, become my trademark. In 1994 it was purchased by the city for its newly opened Gallery Of Modern Art where it remained for ten years. In 2006 it found a new home in Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum where it hangs in the ‘Looking at Art’ section on the ground floor. You can buy signed prints of my work directly from the site. As well as my Glasgow prints there are a number of Scottish prints, mostly painted from the island of Arran.
It is a fact that the drive to pursue a particular artistic theme eventually loses its powers. At that point one seeks the energy of a new one. So it was that I came to work on what for want of a better word, I term ‘My Abstracts’. I do not think that I am quite finished with this theme, but another one beckons. This may be successful, it may not; watch this space!”