Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 8 on 17/5/2003.

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An affair of the art

ON ST VALENTINE’S DAY, KATE ENNIS SET OFF TO MEET THE HUGELY SUCCESSFUL SCOTTISH ARTIST WITH LOVE ON HIS MIND, JACK VETTRIANO

It is not perhaps the most likely scene for a meeting with Scotland’s most successful contemporary artist – a frosty Valentine’s Day morning in a picturesque English village on the outskirts of Oxford. I am filled with apprehension and excitement, of that giddy feeling before embarking on a date. An appropriate sentiment really, as I prepare to meet with my long-term love – not Jack himself, as charming as he turns out to be, but his paintings.

We meet at Iona House Gallery in Woodstock before a day of exciting sell-out events with Jack to raise money for Scottish International Relief, a charity dear to the artist’s heart. As I enter the gallery, the impact of Vettriano’s vibrant images hanging all together does not disappoint. Neither does Jack himself, dressed in a dapper dark velvet suit, a red rose neatly placed in his lapel.

Unless you’re a dedicated fan, his name may not be instantly familiar, but the images by the Fife-born painter are immediately recognisable and will have adorned many a Valentine’s card the day of our meeting. His work has captured the public’s imagination, with intriguing episodes of romance and seduction, mixed with glamour and nostalgia. He has become a phenomenal worldwide success over the last decade. Two of his paintings, Mad Dogs and The Singing Butler, have outsold any other art poster in the United Kingdom, eclipsing the likes of Van Gogh and Monet.

Yet the road to success has by no means taken an orthodox route. There is an inevitable f.....

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By Kate Ennis

Section : Contemporary Scotland

Page number : 26