Tag: Scottish art

Designer Desire: James McIntosh Patrick

Montage of James McIntosh Patrick paintings
Born in Scotland, James McIntosh Patrick (1907-1998) was an etcher, fine art painter, printmaker and educator.

From 1924, he attended the world-renowned Glasgow School of Art during which time he won many prizes and gained a scholarship. His meticulous landscape etchings caught the attention of a London print dealer, and in 1928 he received an important commission for editions of prints. With the collapse of the print market during the Great Depression, Patrick turned to oil painting, but his attention to detail in landscape remained his trademark.

From 1928, he showed at the Royal Acadamy and from 1934 at Fine Art Society. He was elected to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (the RSA) in 1957. He taught part-time at Dundee College of Art.

During WWII, Patrick served in the Camouflage Corps. Post-war was when he became famous for his intricate, realistic landscapes – especially of the area around his home town of Dundee.

Key solo exhibitions were held in 1967 at Dundee City Art Gallery and at Dundee, Aberdeen and Liverpool in 1987. A decade later, a 90th birthday celebration was held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

Patrick’s work is held in the collections of Dundee Art Galleries, Fleming Collection, Walker Art Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery amongst others.

As well as fine art landscape and portrait paintings in oils and watercolour, Patrick designed a number of publicity posters for British Railways of numerous Scottish tourist destinations including Crieff, Dunnottar Castle, Edinburgh, Loch Leven, Oban and St Andrews.

Easel in the Field: the Life of Mcintosh Patrick is available at Abe Books and Amazon. As well as the book, an auction sale catalogue was published in 1998 – Christie’s: The James McIntosh Patrick Collection – it accompanied a sale of personal effects furniture and artworks (his own and those of other artists) from his own collection.

Portrait of Montage of James McIntosh Patrick paintingscredit

Additional image credits:
Art UK | Christies

Designer Desire: Peter Howson

Montage of Peter Howson artworks

Peter Howson is a contemporary British painter whose work I discovered via a recent auction.

Born in London in 1958 to Scottish parents, he moved with them to Ayrshire as a young child. He attended the Glasgow School of Art in the 1970s, gaining his first degree and later on a master’s. He went on to teach there on a part-time basis.

In 1993, Peter Howson was commissioned as Britain’s official war artist during the Bosnian War, and later covered the war in Kosovo for the Times newspaper. You can see why, his subject matter often shows the brutality, harshness and hopelessness in life; mining, boxing, fighting, homelessness, crime and rioting.

Often, I’m drawn to and repulsed by his paintings in equal measure. The gore, violence and the grotesqueness expressed in such a beautiful way. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the work of Stanley Spencer, another favourite artist of mine – and who’s also known for his work on the subjects of war and religion.

His style really reminds me of the album cover artwork of In the Court of the Crimson King created by Barry Godber; compare it to the portrait at the top right of our montage above. Unsurprisingly, his artwork has also graced the album sleeves of  The Beautiful South, Jackie Leven and Live (in 2005, the original artwork – Sisters of Mercy – sold at Christie’s in New York for $186,000).

There are many famous fans and collectors of his work including David Bowie, Bill Gates, Jack Nicholson and Madonna.

Here is Howson being interviewed in 2007 by Andrew Graham-Dixon about his exhibition at City Art Centre in Edinburgh Andrew: Portrait of a Saint.

Peter Howsen has been fairly prolific; so originals, prints, monographs and exhibition catalogues of his work are readily available. He is represented by Flowers Gallery, Robertson Fine Art and sells on his own website.

His works are in the permanent collections of many of the top international arts institutions; the V&A, the Tate, MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Museums.

Portrait of Peter Howsoncredit

Additional image credits:
Invaluable