24/3/2008The Springburn boy who beat all the adds to become darling of the art world
AS A boy growing up in 1940s Springburn, George Devlin had little inclination of the artistic future that lay ahead.
He had no idea of the five-decade-long painting career that would see his exquisite oil landscapes exhibited all over the world, collected by major galleries and featuring on stamps for the French postal service.
All he knew then was that watching the waves of German bombers, the beaming searchlights and the shapes of the barrage balloons over the nearby railway workshops was a spectacle that stirred his creative imagination.
"I found it almost like a piece of theatre," says George, recalling the days when h'd sit on the steps outside the family's flat because his father, who fought in the First World War, refused to use air raid shelters.
"Yes there was a fear, but there was also excitement.
"I knew that a bomb was a bad thing, but if a bomb fell on me then it would bounce off the cushion I had put on my head," he laughs.
Celebrating his 70th birthday last year, George is a man whose personality and artistic reach are as large and colourful as the canvases he creates.
A Glasgow School of Art graduate and former art teacher, he is famous internationally for his richly-coloured landscape paintings of France, Italy, India, West Africa and of course his native Scotland.
He was also commissioned to paint Nobel prize winner Sir James Black and by Glasgow University to paint chancellor Sir Alexander Cairncross.
Having just completed the final brush strokes on his "high wire act" of a one-off portraiture demonstration at the RGI Kelly Gallery on Douglas Street, the Maryhill-based artist is larger than life in charming the gathered visitors.
You¹re a nail biter? "Remember Venus de Milo!" Someone mentions taking tiffin (afternoon tea) in India? "You don¹t get that in Maryhill!" laughs George.
His energy and lust for life are remarkable traits he attributes to his returning good health.
"I'm a firm believer that there is such a thing as post-cancer euphoria," says George, who has fought two bouts of cancer and chemotherapy in five years.
"Part of that euphoria is working. Working from my point of view is celebrating living.
"I have noticed a big difference in the work since the cancer there¹s much more joie de vivre.
"Certainly in terms of colour there¹s much more of a celebration taking place."
It's testament to George's fighting spirit and inspiring creativity that his work continues apace.
Next month he'll showcase his work from Venice at the Billcliffe Gallery on Blythswood Street, he has recently returned from India, has been invited out to work in Cape Town and has an exhibition planned for 2009 at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh where he will showcase his large-scale portraits.
But his first round of cancer treatment did put paid to one appointment to open an exhibition.
"I made a little joke I wrote a letter to the organisers saying that I¹m terribly sorry, but I¹m now a semi-colon.
"I got this lovely reply back, saying: "Dear George, thanks for your letter, sorry you can't make it, but I'd like to observe that it's much better to be a semi-colon than a full stop!" quips George, dissolving into fits of laughter.
George refused to be beaten by a primary cancer in which he had a chunk of his bowel removed, or latterly with a secondary cancer, which meant a second major operation to remove half his left lung.
As an artist, he found refuge in his studio; a converted coachhouse at the bottom of his garden where he would go to paint or sometimes just to sleep during the blackest days of chemotherapy.
"I knew that as soon as I entered the studio, I was entering a parallel world," explains George, who found great camaraderie with his 'cancer friends' who swap stories and healthy eating tips.
"In that parallel world, the mess and the sickness and the vomiting were kicked into touch.
"I consider myself very fortunate in that as an artist I had access to that."
The youngest of six children, George's father couldn't work as a miner after being gassed in the First World War.
George was raised by his mother and his eldest sister Lily, who he looked on as a second mother.
Like most 15-year-old working class boys in post-war Springburn, he was expected to take an apprenticeship at the engineering works, but earning the Junior Dux of his school ("A wee swot") and the persuasive powers of his indomitable big sister ensured that he was able to stay on for his Highers.
Nonetheless, his mother was "black affronted" that, instead of studying law or medicine, George sported the beard and long hair of a Glasgow School of Art student, which he attended from 1955 to 1960 and latterly taught at from 1962 and 1966.
George's Art School dream of a career as a lamplighter (working at night, painting by day) was extinguished with new technology, so he got his PSV licence and drove a corporation bus.
"I never took the view that I could go along to the labour exchange and ask for money I found that degrading," says George.
"Driving buses, you could write a book about it it was another world."
A "champion driver" could drive the old No 2 service from Rutherglen to Knightswood on a Saturday night without picking up a single passenger.
Driving a bus and latterly an ambulance and also working behind a bar gave George the money to travel to Greece, France, Yugoslavia or Spain where his money would go further and the scenery was more conducive to the warm, beautifully-coloured painting that has become his trademark.
George and his wife Marie are honorary citizens of the village of Vétheuil in France one of Monet's favourite haunts - and they travel extensively thanks to George's international career.
The couple have a 27-year-old daughter, Nuala, a criminal lawyer.
"We¹re very good pals," says George.
"She's determined to get me back on the hills again.
"This summer we¹re planning to do some Munros, so in the meantime I've got to get into some serious training.
"Half a lung or no half a lung just get on wi' it."
George Devlin's new solo exhibition, Themes and Variations, opens on April 25 at the Billcliffe Gallery, 134 Blythswood Street, Glasgow. 0141 332 4027.
He had no idea of the five-decade-long painting career that would see his exquisite oil landscapes exhibited all over the world, collected by major galleries and featuring on stamps for the French postal service.
All he knew then was that watching the waves of German bombers, the beaming searchlights and the shapes of the barrage balloons over the nearby railway workshops was a spectacle that stirred his creative imagination.
"I found it almost like a piece of theatre," says George, recalling the days when h'd sit on the steps outside the family's flat because his father, who fought in the First World War, refused to use air raid shelters.
"Yes there was a fear, but there was also excitement.
"I knew that a bomb was a bad thing, but if a bomb fell on me then it would bounce off the cushion I had put on my head," he laughs.
Celebrating his 70th birthday last year, George is a man whose personality and artistic reach are as large and colourful as the canvases he creates.
A Glasgow School of Art graduate and former art teacher, he is famous internationally for his richly-coloured landscape paintings of France, Italy, India, West Africa and of course his native Scotland.
He was also commissioned to paint Nobel prize winner Sir James Black and by Glasgow University to paint chancellor Sir Alexander Cairncross.
Having just completed the final brush strokes on his "high wire act" of a one-off portraiture demonstration at the RGI Kelly Gallery on Douglas Street, the Maryhill-based artist is larger than life in charming the gathered visitors.
You¹re a nail biter? "Remember Venus de Milo!" Someone mentions taking tiffin (afternoon tea) in India? "You don¹t get that in Maryhill!" laughs George.
His energy and lust for life are remarkable traits he attributes to his returning good health.
"I'm a firm believer that there is such a thing as post-cancer euphoria," says George, who has fought two bouts of cancer and chemotherapy in five years.
"Part of that euphoria is working. Working from my point of view is celebrating living.
"I have noticed a big difference in the work since the cancer there¹s much more joie de vivre.
"Certainly in terms of colour there¹s much more of a celebration taking place."
It's testament to George's fighting spirit and inspiring creativity that his work continues apace.
Next month he'll showcase his work from Venice at the Billcliffe Gallery on Blythswood Street, he has recently returned from India, has been invited out to work in Cape Town and has an exhibition planned for 2009 at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh where he will showcase his large-scale portraits.
But his first round of cancer treatment did put paid to one appointment to open an exhibition.
"I made a little joke I wrote a letter to the organisers saying that I¹m terribly sorry, but I¹m now a semi-colon.
"I got this lovely reply back, saying: "Dear George, thanks for your letter, sorry you can't make it, but I'd like to observe that it's much better to be a semi-colon than a full stop!" quips George, dissolving into fits of laughter.
George refused to be beaten by a primary cancer in which he had a chunk of his bowel removed, or latterly with a secondary cancer, which meant a second major operation to remove half his left lung.
As an artist, he found refuge in his studio; a converted coachhouse at the bottom of his garden where he would go to paint or sometimes just to sleep during the blackest days of chemotherapy.
"I knew that as soon as I entered the studio, I was entering a parallel world," explains George, who found great camaraderie with his 'cancer friends' who swap stories and healthy eating tips.
"In that parallel world, the mess and the sickness and the vomiting were kicked into touch.
"I consider myself very fortunate in that as an artist I had access to that."
The youngest of six children, George's father couldn't work as a miner after being gassed in the First World War.
George was raised by his mother and his eldest sister Lily, who he looked on as a second mother.
Like most 15-year-old working class boys in post-war Springburn, he was expected to take an apprenticeship at the engineering works, but earning the Junior Dux of his school ("A wee swot") and the persuasive powers of his indomitable big sister ensured that he was able to stay on for his Highers.
Nonetheless, his mother was "black affronted" that, instead of studying law or medicine, George sported the beard and long hair of a Glasgow School of Art student, which he attended from 1955 to 1960 and latterly taught at from 1962 and 1966.
George's Art School dream of a career as a lamplighter (working at night, painting by day) was extinguished with new technology, so he got his PSV licence and drove a corporation bus.
"I never took the view that I could go along to the labour exchange and ask for money I found that degrading," says George.
"Driving buses, you could write a book about it it was another world."
A "champion driver" could drive the old No 2 service from Rutherglen to Knightswood on a Saturday night without picking up a single passenger.
Driving a bus and latterly an ambulance and also working behind a bar gave George the money to travel to Greece, France, Yugoslavia or Spain where his money would go further and the scenery was more conducive to the warm, beautifully-coloured painting that has become his trademark.
George and his wife Marie are honorary citizens of the village of Vétheuil in France one of Monet's favourite haunts - and they travel extensively thanks to George's international career.
The couple have a 27-year-old daughter, Nuala, a criminal lawyer.
"We¹re very good pals," says George.
"She's determined to get me back on the hills again.
"This summer we¹re planning to do some Munros, so in the meantime I've got to get into some serious training.
"Half a lung or no half a lung just get on wi' it."
George Devlin's new solo exhibition, Themes and Variations, opens on April 25 at the Billcliffe Gallery, 134 Blythswood Street, Glasgow. 0141 332 4027.