John Busby RSA RSW SWLA (1928 - 2015)
"As landscape mirrors the mood of the sky, so here the earth is waiting under a silent heaven - for a half hour before the trumpet."
An exhibition focussing on the distinctive landscape paintings of celebrated avian artist John Busby RSA RSW SWLA (1928-2015),celebrating his lifelong passion for panoramic vistas and 'bird's-eye views', captured throughout his prolific career.
While Busby is widely revered as a 'bird artist,' it is the landscape that has always been the heart of his artistic expression. His deep connection with the natural world, shaped by a lifetime of observation, allowed him to transform the land, clouds, and seas into powerful metaphors for the inner human experience.
John Busby RSA RSW SWLA (1928-2015) was an artist, writer, teacher and naturalist. He was born in Bradford in 1928 and after National Service, he studied at Leeds College of Art and then at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) where he was awarded post-graduate and major travel scholarships. On return from France and Italy he was invited to join the staff of ECA, where he taught drawing and painting from 1956 until 1988.
A member of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW). He served as President of the Society of Scottish Artists, 1976-79. A life-long bird watcher and naturalist, (at age 17 he was at the inaugural meeting of the Wharfedale Naturalists Society in 1945) he was a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA).
This latest exhibition features artwork produced all throughout his artistic career, including key post-graduate work produced at Edinburgh College of Art, which have rarely been exhibited since, Alongside are Busby's notable and subtly coloured depictions of the moorlands, coastlines and landscapes which captured his attention throughout his life. This fascination resulted in many series of paintings of cloudscapes and hillsides.
Alongside writing extensively about his interpretation of nature as a painter, Busby also illustrated over 35 books about birds and animals, mostly about behaviour, ranging from seabirds to tigers, garden birds to otters, and also a book of poems by Kenneth Steven called Wild Horses and many of the illustrations in The RSPB Anthology of Wildlife Poetry. His own books also included a booklet Landscapes at the Edge of the Sea in 2010 with his rock pool paintings and another for the first Curious Eye exhibition which he curated at the RSA in 2007.
