Designer Desire: James McIntosh Patrick

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 90^th 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.

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Additional image credits:
Art UK | Christies

Designer Desire: Peter Howson

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.

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Additional image credits:
Invaluable

Cakes & Bakes: Chocolate haggis

It was Burns Night at the weekend – do you celebrate? I’m vegetarian and have never, ever tasted real haggis. Apparently, you can get vegan haggis in the supermarket these days. I much prefer the idea of this version – chocolate haggis!

This is a quick, no-bake, after dinner treat that packs a real punch. The added sultanas get a short soak in whisky (note the lack of an ‘e’ in the name, thus making it genuine Scottish rather than Irish ‘whiskey’).

The added shortbread ups the Scottishness – or you can make your own – try my previously published recipe.

This recipe can easily be modified to make it non-alcoholic – just use a few drops of whisky essence instead. If you’re not averse to the inclusion of alcohol – just not a big whisky drinker – you can buy little alcohol miniatures rather than a full-sized bottle. Also, if you’re worried about the raw egg, you can swap it for about a tablespoon of melted coconut oil.

This chocolate haggis is pretty intense, you’ll probably only need a single, 1cm slice per person.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Chocolate haggis

Foodie Quine

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Party

Cuisine Scottish

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

3 tbsp Scotch whisky
50 g/1¾oz sultanas
100 g/3½oz butter
100 g/3½oz cocoa powder
1 egg
100 g/3½oz caster sugar
150 g/5oz Scottish shortbread
50 g/1¾oz mixed nuts chopped

Instructions

Put the sultanas and whisky into a small bowl and leave to soak whilst you prepare the remaining ingredients
Melt the butter in a saucepan, then sieve in the cocoa powder and stir until you have a smooth paste
In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar and egg together until pale and creamy
Place the shortbread in a zip lock bag and bash it with a rolling pin. You want a mixture of chunks and crumbs
Combine the chocolate mixture with the sugar/egg mix and stir in the shortbread, chopped mixed nuts and the whisky soaked sultanas, plus any remaining whisky
Lay out a double thickness of cling film and tip the chocolate mixture out onto it, forming a haggis shape
Roll up and continue to manipulate into shape, tying a knot at each end of the cling film
Chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to harden
Remove the cling film, slice and serve alongside a wee dram

Run a sharp knife under hot water before slicing the haggis. This will give you clean, even portions.

Keyword chocolate, haggis

Cakes & Bakes: Dundee cake

Regular readers will know that we love an afternoon fruit cake Chez H is for Home; so the turn of Dundee cake was always going to come around.

There are lots out there to choose from, but Delia is often the one I turn to for ‘guaranteed success’ cake recipes. This one was adapted from one I found in her Delia’s Cakes cook book.

I don’t like orange or candied peel and am indifferent to glacé cherries (fussy, I know). Instead, I’ve used a dried fruit mixture of currants, raisins and sultanas.

It looked delicious when it came out of the oven and tasted delicious too – eaten ‘as is’ or with a thin spread of butter. As suspected, a cup of tea was the perfect accompaniment.

Pin the recipe to Pinterest for a later date.

Dundee cake

2018-07-04 06:37:18

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

1 hr 45 min

Total Time

1 hr 55 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

1 hr 45 min

Total Time

1 hr 55 min

Ingredients

225g/8oz plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground mixed spice
150g/5¼oz spreadable butter
150g/5¼oz golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
450g/1lb mixed dried fruit (you could use currants, raisins, sultanas, glacé cherries, candied peel and even dried apricots)
2 level tbsp ground almonds
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp whisky (purists will insist it must be Scottish)
60g/2oz whole, blanched almonds

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 325ºF/Gas mark 3
Grease an 18cm/7" round cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper
Sift the flour, baking powder and mixed spice into the bowl of a stand mixer
Add the butter, caster sugar and eggs and combine
Add the whiskey and mix into the batter
Fold in the dried fruit, ground almonds and lemon zest
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, spreading it out evenly with the back of the spoon. Arrange the whole almonds in concentric circles over the top. Only press them down very lightly otherwise they'll sink during cooking
Put the cake into the centre of the oven and bake for 1¾ hours or until the centre is firm and springy to touch
Allow it to cool on a wire rack before removing it from the tin

Notes

Store in cool place, in an air-tight container - it should keep for a week or longer

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