EARTH DAY WITH RED, A LARGE OIL BY TOM HUTCHESON RGI

* TOM HUTCHESON RGI (SCOTTISH 1922 - 1999),
EARTH DAY WITH RED
oil on board, signed and titled verso
image size 90cm x 85cm, overall size 108cm x 103cm
Framed.
Note: Tom Hutcheson enrolled at Glasgow School of Art for session 1941-42, and then volunteered for the RAF. He returned after the war to continue his studies from 1946-49, and graduated in drawing and painting. Among his tutors were Hugh Adam Crawford, David Donaldson, and Geoffrey Squire. Douglas Percy Bliss was then director. Tom taught very successfully in Glasgow junior secondary schools pioneering, along with Danny Ferguson and others, the new art teachers’ philosophy, which fostered creativity and imagination. In 1977, he was appointed Principal of Art Education at Jordanhill College, thus carrying on the work of Sam Black. From the outset, he was a dedicated painter, exhibiting publicly from 1949 onwards. His subject matter was invariably drawn from the landscape of the West of Scotland, with occasional forays to Skye or Spain. His love of the mining areas of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire furnished him with a steady stream of subjects which, as he matured as a painter, became more concerned with colour and texture, and less with topographical detail. In 1949 it was “Tanyard in Cumnock”. In 1989 it was “Earthscape in Mottled Green and Muted Reds”. He acknowledged this himself, stating: “Colour is, for me, the most important element in painting. But it should never be used solely in a decorative, anecdotal or descriptive manner. It is the element for expressing emotion and feelings.” His work is in many public and private collections at home and abroad, including those of the HM The Queen, arts councils, and the art galleries of Kelvingrove, Detroit, and Puerto Rico. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Glasgow Institute, Royal Scottish Academy and Society of Scottish Artists, and was a long time member of the Glasgow Art Club. Another Glasgow connection was with the Glasgow Group of Artists, whose annual exhibitions in June at the McLellan Galleries were, for many years, a regular feature of the art scene. Tom died suddenly on 1st November 1999 while collecting work at the close of the RGI exhibition – in sight of the Glasgow School of Art, where it all began over 50 years previously.

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