Ian began painting following a near fatal motorbike crash just

weeks before his 17th Birthday. After a month in hospital, he

spent his time in recovery stuck in a remote cottage in the

middle of nowhere. While learning to walk again and going

slowly mad with boredom, he discovered a very old paint by

numbers set, long forgotten in the back of a cupboard. Having

pursued every other avenue in his limited world to keep his mind

occupied, he fell back on this. Armed with an old vinyl album

cover, he painted a copy of it. It wasn’t good. But there was

something, a couple of brush strokes here and there that

hinted at some ability.

As soon as he was able to, he started to travel into town to Aberdeen

Central library. It was there that he met the people who would really inspire his

painting, Bruegel, Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Wyeth, so many incredible artists.

Vermeer in particular fascinated him, his careful compositions, colours, technique,

so much so, three years after his accident, he produced a copy of Vermeer’s The

Art of Painting. He’s never stopped oil painting since then.

Over the years that followed, he has shown work in Aberdeen Art Gallery, independent

art galleries, group shows and art fairs. He has painted portraiture commissions and

continued producing copies of paintings to further his knowledge of artists techniques,

and often just for his own satisfaction. Painting, and by extension, drawing, colour and

composition got him into art college, a career in graphic design, which led to teaching

art and design.

In 2010 he gained a Masters in Fine Art from Gray's School of Art where he was able to

further explore his practice of figurative painting and portraiture.