An artist with tangible talent, Michael McVeigh is a little unorthodox, and as if to prove that, it has taken him to his sixth decade before staging a solo exhibition of his work.
It might never have happened except that when Managing Director of The Scottish Gallery Christina Jansen met him there she knew this was one artist she really wanted to snap up and show off!
You can see what all the fuss is about in their airy ground floor rooms until 1 October 2016. And if you live in Edinburgh, even if you don’t already know his name you probably do already know Michael McVeigh.
He is the artist with the colour prints on sale on Rose Street at a stall there, or he could be the guy you see with a sketchpad in Princes Street Gardens which is one of his favourite haunts.
The end result is quite magical and in some cases fantastical.
One of five children born and brought up in a council housing estate in Lochee, Dundee he simply enrolled himself unofficially at the Duncan of Jordanstone Art College, by attending classes. However when the lecturer James Morrison saw his work he ensured that McVeigh’s place at art college was formalised and he was then allowed to attend full-time.
He then moved to Edinburgh in 1982 and sold his lizard prints from a Rose Street stall. Lizard means laser in McVeigh speak! Life as a street artist has meant that he has attracted some unwanted celebrity status, but his work may be familiar to you as it is held in many public and private collections.
The exhibition contains works old and new as Christina Jansen Managing Director of The Scottish Gallery explained:
The Edinburgh Reporter talks to Christina Jansen of The Scottish Gallery from Phyllis Stephen on Vimeo.
Christina Jansen of The Scottish Gallery said:“McVeigh is a modern day folk artist who depicts the world around him, a participant observer who has created a naive/sophisticated setting for contemporary life and history.
“Above all, McVeigh’s work depicts Scotland, focusing particularly on city life, with all its subcultures and traditions. Edinburgh streets, Scottish pipes and drums, harbour scenes and pubs, fisherfolk and folk musicians come together in a romantic vision of Scotland which is both real and imagined.”
Michael McVeigh The Romanticism, Folklore and Fantasy of Michael McVeigh
7 September – 1 October 2016
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