Untitled (Figure by the Rocks)

Goeffrey Squire,was a celebrated portrait artist and lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art. He won a scholarship to Leeds School of Art, the first of many that saw him study at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University and then Slade School of Fine Art at University College London.

His had an innate enthusiasm for his craft and one that helped to nurture some of the country’s most celebrated artistic talent – John Byrne, Alison Watt and Stephen Conroy – through an academic career spent entirely at Glasgow School of Art. Meanwhile he continued his private work, primarily as a portrait painter. Though he was an incredibly versatile artist, having originally studied sculpture, he worked mainly in oil and latterly acrylic. Among those who sat for him was Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, formerly the Lord Lyon, and Mr Squire recorded a coat of arms at Lyon Office. They featured a swan and a rose reflecting his Yorkshire roots along with the motto Natura Potentior Ars – Nature’s Art is Better.