The Harry and Margery Boswell Art Collection: Artworks
- John Bellany, Woman of the North Sea.
- Elizabeth Blackadder, Untitled.
- John Byrne, Juggling Harlequin.Steven Campbell, Portrait of Tom Normand.
- Calum Colvin, Mute Swan.
- Ken Currie, Age of Uncertainty.
- Ken Currie, Reprisal.
- Alan Davie, Zurich Improvisations XII.
- Paul Furneaux, Black Madonna.
- John Houston, Untitled.
- Ian Howard, Drago.
- Callum Innes, XI
- Elspeth Lamb, The Gift.
- Patricia Macdonald, Braided river and ancient pines, Glen Feshie, Cairngorms.
- Patricia Macdonald, Lochan Uaine (The Green Lochan) below the Angel's Peak of Carn an t-Sabhail, Cairngorms.
- Will Maclean, Bird Altar.
- Will Maclean, The Tanera Suite.
- William McCance, Machine Moloch or Machine Gods.
- William McCance, The Engineer, His Wife and Family.
- William McCance, Tree Trunk Composition.
- June Redfern, Early Morning Mist.
- Elaine Shemilt, Image in a Bell Jar.
- Alison Watt, Untitled.
- Adrian Wiszniewski, For Max.
John Bellany (born 1942)
Woman of the North Sea
About 1997
Watercolour and pencil
HC1997.3
John Bellany was born in Port Seton, near Edinburgh. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1960 to 1965 and at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, from 1965 to 1968. In 1986 he became the first artist to have a one-man show in the National Portrait Gallery, London. He has exhibited throughout Europe and America.
Bellany's father and grandfathers were fishermen and his early work was influenced by his experience of the fishing industry at Port Seton. Woman of the North Sea develops Bellany's interest in the sea and seafaring, which often moves into images of sexuality. The female figure in this work is based on Bellany's muse, his wife Helen.
When the work was acquired for the Boswell Collection in 1997, Bellany said that he felt that the painting seemed to properly belong in St Andrews because of the grey light and the association with the sea.
