Alan Watson (b.1957, St Andrews), DA, Post Diploma.

Coming from a long line of fishing families from the East Neuk of Fife, Watson early on began drawing his surroundings.

Studies/Awards:

1980: Diploma in Art, Drawing and Painting, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee.

1981: Post Diploma, Drawing and Painting, Highly Commended. Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee.

1981: Royal Scottish Academy Carnegie Travelling Scholarship.

1981: Scottish Education Department Major Travelling Scholarship.

1983: Scottish Young Artist Bursary to support my research in to St Kilda's bird culture.

1985: Royal Scottish Academy Latimer Award.

1989: Invited Artist, 'Scottish Art in Moscow', The Palace of Youth, Moscow.

1990: Resident Artist, Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews. Created an exhibition of paintings titled 'Flea on an Elephant's Back' which depict the construction of oil riggs at RGC, Methil. Also a series of large scale drawings to illustrate George Mackay Brown's, "Sea King's Daughter", Balnain Books, 1991. The Maid of Norway, the child bride Queen Margaret, did not survive the tempestuous journey from Norway to Scotland.

His visual art works have been selected for solo exhibitions throughout the UK, including Cambridge, Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow, London, and the Scottish Islands. I have participated in group exhibitions in China, Europe, Russia, UK and USA. Many of my paintings and drawings have been purchased for public collections in the UK, and private collections in Europe, Russia, UK and the USA.

Artist Statement:
My favourite colours are bright orange and blue. I think this goes back to a very early memory which pleased me very much of a deep blue sky set against a roof of Dutch inspired orange pantiles.

Born in St Andrews I come from a long line of fishing families from the East Neuk of Fife. My earliest memory of drawing is aged 5 sketching whaling boats against dramatic sea stacs on the wall under the stairs in our house in Shetland. As a family we never lived far from the sea, the ‘Tail of the Bank’ in Greenock, near the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland and numerous family holidays Cellardyke, Fife and Waterfoot on the Mull of Kintyre. I now realise these experiences fed a continual stream of sea imagery in to my visual thinking.

I spent five very happy years studying drawing and painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee. We were taught by a diverse range of really strong principled personalities led by the charismatic Alberto Morrocco including Dennis Buchan, Bill Cadenhead, Grant Clifford, Peter Collins, Jimmy Duff, Jack Knox, David McClure, Tim Neat. We sat in on figure drawing with John Johnstone and Will Maclean. We enjoyed visits from Barbara Rae who was teaching at Glasgow School of Art at that time and Frances Walker from Grays in Aberdeen – a welcome female artistic perspective on what we were doing. And then of course James McIntosh Patrick obligingly left a dod of cigar smoke to denote he had ‘borrowed objects’ from our still life set ups. We thereby pestered him by return by taking our work to his Saturday class for an impromptu crit. I left Art College grateful for their encouragement and support and the skills they passed on to me. I was also determined to do things differently.

I was lucky enough to win two travelling scholarships at the end of my post diploma year which enabled me to travel throughout Europe in the Autumn of 1981. The diverse range of work I saw ranging from the first exhibition of Picasso’s late work in Basel, The Glacier at the Jungfrau which Turner had painted, the stupendous collection of Breughels work in Vienna to the majestic ‘Adoration of the Mystical Lamb’ in Ghent were to inspire my ambitions as an artist for the next two years as I started my professional career.

Since then my work has followed a narrative path like the Flemish Primitives I so admire looking at the bird culture of the Islands of St Kilda, my family’s involvement in the Scottish fishing and whaling industry. I have also worked on series which depicted the emergence of the hydro electric schemes in Highland Perthshire, the North Sea oil rig construction in Methil, Fife, and a series of pastel drawings depicting the voyage of St Brendan ‘The Navigatio’.

Since moving to Cupar I have been increasingly fascinated with the dramatic light effects on the rolling wooden hills and intensively managed farmland I see all around me. I only have to walk to the copse of trees behind my house to glimpse the sea, a reassuring sight for me.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery: 1987: 'A Time to Keep', East Neuk Fishing paintings and charcoal drawings.
2001: 'The Navigatio', the St Brendan story, conte on paper.

Chambers Institute, Peebles:
1988: 'A Time to Keep', East Neuk Fishing paintings and charcoal drawings.

Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine:
1988: 'A Time to Keep', East Neuk Fishing paintings and charcoal drawings.

Barbican Centre, London:
1989: 'Hunting the Big Fish', charcoal whaling drawing series.

Pittenweem Arts Festival:
1989: Fife. 'Hunting the Big Fish', charcoal whaling drawing series.

Barrack Street Museum, Dundee Art Galleries and Museums:
1989: 'Hunting the Big Fish', charcoal whaling drawing series.

Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews:
1989: 'Hunting the Big Fish', charcoal whaling drawing series.
1990: 'A Flea On An Elephants Back', (RGC oil rigg paintings).

Hillier Parker, London, (Fine Art Consultancy):
1992: Paintings and pastels from Moscow series.

Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh:
1993: Variety if paintings and drawings including the fishing paintings and the 'Black Catch', charcoal drawings, Cellardyke pastels, Braer Oil Spill, North Rona landscape.

Selected Group Exhibitions:
1983-1988: Chicago International Art Exposition.
1984: 'Scottish Expressionism', Warwick Arts Trust, London.
1984: 'What Are Young Scottish Painters Doing?', 369 Gallery - touring show.
1984: 'The New Wave', 369 Gallery, Edinburgh Festival.
1984: Caledonian Club, London.
1985: 'Society of Scottish Artists', Collins Gallery, Glasgow.
1985: 'Contemporary Scottish Landscape', City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
1985: Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition.
1985: Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition.
1985: 'Stonework', Scottish Arts Council Travelling Gallery.
1985: International Contemporary Art Fair, London.
1986: 'Contemporary Scottish Painting', Perth Museum & Art Gallery.
1986: 'McLean Biennial', McLean Museum & Art Gallery, Greenock.
1986: 'Art Branching Out', Scottish Arts Council Travelling Gallery.
1986: 'Contemporary Sccottish Landscape', Chambers Institute, Peebles.
1988: 'Three Person Touring show', The Piers Art Centre, Orkney.
1988: 'Metropole Arts Centre', Folkestone, Kent.
1989: 'Scottish Art in Moscow', The Palace of Youth, Moscow.
1990: 'Painting the Forth Bridge', 369 Gallery and touring.
1991: 'The Whale and the Artist', Barrack Street Museum, Dundee.
1991: 'Edinburgh Moscow', Georgian Cultural Centre, Moscow.
1991: 'The Fife Special', Arts in Fife touring show.
1991: British Rail 'Trainload Freight' commissioning programme, inaugural exhibition, TFL HQ, London.
1993: 'Shoreline', Edinburgh City Art Centre, and touring.
1993: 'Portrait of the Artist', Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.
1996: Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition.
1997: 'Contemporary Scottish Art', Eastern General Hospital, Edinburgh.
1999: 'Morrison's Portrait Award Exhibition', Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2010: 'Arts Festival', Cupar.

Sources:
alanwatsonartist.com
Information provided by the artist.