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This catalogue records the final body of paintings made by George Devlin before his death in 2014 and does not set out to reassess or place the artist in a history of Scottish art. That might well be undertaken some day and would comprise a complete retrospective, rediscovering much work from the sixties and seventies unrecognisable to many of George’s friends and collectors. George was not beamed down as a fully-formed impressionist on to the banks of a canal in Vetheuil in 1981. He had a varied career up to that moment, full of the usual triumphs and disasters (and Kipling’s twin imposters would not be entirely absent from the next thirty years or so either) but at that moment, after the birth of his daughter Nuala and happy and fortunate in his second marriage to Marie he was able to stop striving to make his way in the art world and begin to be true to himself.
George Devlin was born in Glasgow and attended GSA (1955-60), and studied extensively in Europe, after which he crossed the Sahara and lived and worked in West Africa. He set up his own painting school in Glasgow in 1969, which he transferred to France in 1989. In 1972, he presented a television series on Art for Scottish Television, and the following year he designed the set and costumes for the ballet ‘Embers’, toured by the Scottish Ballet. He was elected chairman of the Glasgow League of Artists in 1977, and president of several art clubs and societies, such as Glasgow Art Club, FRSA, ROI and RBA. Devlin’s works include some still lifes but most are landscapes, particularly of Italy, France and of course Scotland but also India and South Africa. His bright, fresh, spontaneous, plein air approach resulted in atmospheric impressions. His work was displayed in both national and international exhibitions. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, National Portrait Gallery, Scottish Arts Council, Aberdeen Art Gallery,Arts Gallery (New York), Holland Art Fair, Cleveland Drawing Biennale, Edinburgh Festival and the Centre D’Art Contemporaine (Paris) are among the collections that contain his work.
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