John Bellany (1942-2013)

In conjunction with the Open Eye Gallery's 40th anniversary celebrations we will mount an exhibition celebrating the life and work of John Bellany, for what would have been the acclaimed artist's 80th year.

A celebration of life, this exhibition will feature a selection of his more joyful paintings from his later years.

John Bellany CBE HRSA RA LLD (1942-2013) was the most prolific and acclaimed Scottish artist of his generation. He is best known for documenting the lives of the fishing communities of the east coast of Scotland.

Bellany was born in Port Seton on the coast of East Lothian in 1942. He attended Edinburgh College of Art from 1960 to 1965 and studied painting under Sir Robin Philipson. He met Alexander Moffat there, and together they mounted student exhibitions and travelled in Germany. Along with Scottish poets including Hugh MacDiarmid and Alan Bold, these youthful idealists sought to produce figurative painting and expressive prose that portrayed a modern Scotland whilst embracing its national heritage.

The influence of Bellany’s upbringing in a close-knit and religious fishing community is clear in his earlier student works, but continued to play a valid part in his later works.