ONE of the hugely talented ‘Glasgow Boys’ artists who taught and worked in Helensburgh and District in his youth became a major figure in the London art world.

John Lavery, later Sir John, was given a two-page spread in the February 24 1912 edition of The Sphere, An illustrated Newspaper for the Home.

Read more …Artist earned London fame

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THE WORK of one of Helensburgh’s outstanding architects of years gone by can still be admired around the town.

Robert Wemyss FI Arch (Scot), LRIBA, is not as well-known as his contemporaries Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Leiper, but he contributed a great deal to the look of the town centre and other areas.

Read more …Architect had delicate touch

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WHY the infant town of Helensburgh came to have a theatre is a mystery.

One source which does offer a few clues is the book “A Nonogenarian’s Reminiscences of Garelochside and Helensburgh and The People who Dwelt Thereon and Therein”, written by Donald MacLeod (1883).

Read more …Short life of burgh theatre

Mystery-portrait-wTHE PAINTER of a portrait of a young girl — acquired by the Anderson Trust Local Collection — has not been positively identified, but may have been a famous artist and illustrator who grew up in Rhu.

The painting came from the estate of the late Vea Black, who lived in Dunavon, Rhu, in 2001, and the artist is highly likely to be have been her ‘Uncle Archie’, A.S.Hartrick.

Read more …Did Rhu artist paint portrait?

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Charles Blatherwick's painting entitled 'The Coast Road' — perhaps the old Helensburgh pier from the east, with the Rosneath Peninsula beyond.

A LEADING Scottish artist of his time spent the final thirty years of his life enjoying living on the shores of the Gareloch.

Charles-Blatherwick-wDr Charles Blatherwick, whose daughter Lily also was a well-known painter and printmaker, spent three decades at Dunaivon, Rhu, prior to his sudden death from a burst blood vessel in the brain at Fish House, Kirkcudbright, on September 17 1895.

Read more …Rhu artist had several talents

HELENSBURGH'S Maggie Hamilton (1867–1952), a talented embroiderer and painter of flowers and still lifes, presents a fascinating case study of a woman artist at the turn of the century, who worked and exhibited prodigiously across the fine and decorative arts, and yet has now fallen into obscurity.

Read more …Search for work by Maggie Hamilton

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