Jack Vettriano Archives - Artcatto - Art Gallery in Algarve

Jack Vettriano

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Fife, Scotland in 1951, Jack Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer. For his twenty-first birthday, a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.In 1989, he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy and his new life as an artist began from that point on.
Over the last twenty years, interest in Vettriano’s work has grown consistently. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York.
2004 was an exceptional year in Vettriano’s career; his best known painting, The Singing Butler was sold at Sotheby’s for close to £750,000; he was awarded an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts and was the subject of a South Bank Show documentary, entitled ‘Jack Vettriano: The People’s Painter’.
Vettriano divides his time between his homes in Fife, London and Nice.

Gillian Catto was responsible for launching the careers of artists who have subsequently become household names, Jack Vettriano is one of them. Her solo exhibition of this Scottish painter helped to create a global demand for his work, which saw the originals skyrocket in value virtually overnight. Gillian brings his works to Portugal in the form of limited edition prints, prints on canvas and a selection of greeting cards.