Jack Vettriano: A Modern Scottish Artist

A self taught artist who has attained immense popularity in the past two decades, Jack Vettriano was born Jack Hoggan on November 17, 1951 in Methil, a seaside and industrial town in Fife, Scotland. He was en route to establishing a career as a mining engineer having left school at 16, when he received a set of watercolors on his 21st birthday from his girlfriend. That gift infused in Jack a desire to learn painting which resulted in his early works on canvas, mainly copies of impressionist works, created under his birth name Jack Hoggan.

Vettriano first submitted his paintings to an exhibition in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery in nearby Kirkcaldy in 1984. But the big breakthrough came in 1989 when the two canvases he submitted to the annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy were sold the first day. This success was repeated in 1990 with the three paintings he entered at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in London. Around this time he changed his surname from "Hoggan" to "Vettriano".

In 1992 Vettriano completed "The Singing Butler". It sold for £740,000 at Sotheby's in 2004 and became representative of Vettriano's artworks on canvas. He was then awarded an OBE for his Services to the Visual Arts. Currently, "The Singing Butler" is the subject of more postcards and posters sold, compared to the work of any other British artist. According to research conducted, Vettriano had made use of the "The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual" for shaping the figures in "The Singing Butler". This is part of his self taught techniques that enabled him to rise to the current level of excellence and popularity.

In August 2007 another of Vettriano's masterpieces, "Bluebird at Bonneville", sold for £468,000 at a Sotheby's auction. The painting in oil on canvas portrays the Bluebird, the specially-built automobile in which British legend Sir Malcolm Campbell set the then land speed record of over 300 mph in 1935. Another motor racing themed work is a triptych of paintings titled "Tension, Timing, Triumph - Monaco 1971" created in May 2008 in collaboration with Scottish former Formula One driver and triple World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

Generally, Jack Vettriano's canvases with their nude and romantic depictions remind one of the film noir genre, the term for black-and-white thrillers created by Hollywood. Some of these paintings on canvas are "Star Café", "The Letter", "Words of Wisdom", "Yesterday's Dreams", "Dressed to Kill", "Rose", "Round Midnight", "Table for One" and "The Opening Gambit".

Vettriano recently completed a portrait titled "Olympia" depicting the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, Zara Phillips MBE for the charity fund-raising project Sport Relief 2008. Vettriano launched a publishing company, Heartbreak Publishing, in February 2009 with the purpose to help his collectors and fans to directly purchase his limited edition prints, posters and cards of his canvases. It also serves to promote works by other artists.

The Official Website of Jack Vettriano features many images and photographs of his work along with details of his many exhibitions. Limited edition prints, books, posters and cards featuring his work can be bought from Heartbreak Publishing.