JournoJan

By JanPatienceArt

By George!

I was on BBC Radio Scotland's The Janice Forsyth Show yesterday with Marie Devlin.
It was our second radio interview of the day and we were discussing a new exhibition of paintings by Marie's late husband, George Devlin.
If you click on link above - it takes you to programme page. We're on in the last ten minutes.
We nabbed Janice for a photo afterwards. Janice is in the middle and Marie is stage right.
The first interview we did was with Derek Bateman from Newsnet Radio and will be online soon, I believe. (Forgot in all the excitement to take a picture of us with Derek... sorry Dek!)
The George Devlin Memorial Exhibition featuring work from various periods of a five-decade long career as a painter opened yesterday at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.
It runs until Saturday 3rd October.
I knew George, but not as well as some. He was a straight-talker and a fine painter.
I used to joke that he had my phone number on speed-dial, especially when a new exhibition of his work was opening.
He battled cancer hard for his last 12 years and some of his finest paintings came out of this period. Fuelled by the energy he generated by a sheer will to live and make beautiful marks.
George was not to the manner born. He was the second youngest of six kids and grew up Springburn, Glasgow. His dad, a miner, suffered dreadfully from the effects of being gassed in the First World War.
His mum went out to clean offices to make ends meet.
Although a natural academic and a gifted linguist at school, he always wanted to be an artist and fought all attempts to make him go to university.
Instead he went to Glasgow School of Art and learned his craft under Scottish painting greats such as David Donaldson and William and Mary Armour.
George's paintings found their way into some of the premier collections in the world.
His work even appeared on a set of stamps produced by the French Post Office in honour of his long association with the Val d'Oise region of France.
Marie selected the paintings for this new exhibition and it is an intimate affair. One of the stand-out works is a full-length portrait of he couple's daughter, Nuala, on the eve of her graduation ball.
Marie was a bit nervous about the radio interviews and said she needed some hand-holding. It was George who did all the showman stuff when it came to promoting his work.
Forget the hand-holding - Marie was a total natural!! She has a lovely voice and a really good way of speaking about the work.
It was fun too. I feel like I've made a good friend. She's even managed to convince me in should be reading Outlander books!
To be continued...

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