John Bellany “Gull”

John Bellany “Gull”

John Bellany was a Scottish painter. He was born on the 18^th of June 1942 in Port Seton and died on the 28^th of August 2013. During the 1960s, he studied at Edinburgh College of Art and then went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London. In many of Bellany’s works you can see that he was hugely inspired by the coastal communities from which he was surrounded by. Most of his paintings were based on the fishing community. Either oil paintings of the harbours or portraits of the fishing community men/women. Bellany’s liver transplant also inspired him for some of his other pieces. His move to Barga, Italy in later life drastically changed his work. They clearly showed an optimism in the brighter colours that were used. Bellany’s works are included in some of the world's greatest collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum and many more. One of my favourite works by John Bellany is “Gull”. It is an etching which was completed in 1994 and is approximately 417mm by 304mm. “Gull” is from a set of nine prints that were published in 1994 by the Byam School of Art. They were made to raise funds for their student scholarships and bursary funds. I like this print because of its simplistic look. The actual seagull doesn’t have much detail and the background and foreground don’t have much detail either. Although this print lacks the detail, it still looks like the subject (in this case a seagull) and portrays the theme of the seaside which it was meant to do so for that reason, I really like it.