John Bellany is arguably one of the best loved artists in the UK. A proud Scot through and through, he was nevertheless one of the relatively few Scottish artists of the 20th century whose career truly transitioned across the border and into the London market. He was a fixture at the Royal Academy, and a feature in many prominent collections, including that of high profile art lovers like David Bowie and Sean Connery.
Recognisable motifs abound in his work, from gulls to fishing boats, and from the Bass Rock to the rolling hills of Italy. His paintings are steeped in oblique symbolism. This was especially the case up until the late 1970s, the first half of his career. Works of this period have a dream-like, or perhaps more accurately, nightmarish quality. At this stage Bellany was plumbing the darker recesses of the human psyche, and a purposeful sense of eeriness and the uncanny permeates his work. His symbolism was at its densest to fathom; gulls as large as humans and shrouded, faceless figures are set against an ocean of dead calm, as if players on a stage.
The tone of his work mellowed and brightened in later years, but as a young man, existential issues were clearly at the forefront of his artistic exploration, as was the excavation of his family's fisher folk history. These elusive narratives provide the viewer with an endlessly fascinating tableau to pick over, but their meaning always slips, tantalising and dreamlike, from our comprehension. Just as the artist intended.