Francis Curran

Francis Curran, who has died aged 82, spent some of his happiest times on the island of Tiree where owned a studio just 20 yards from the shore.

Housed in the 19th century property he bought from a leading light in Glasgow School of Art, it had been a home for a working artist ever since it was built.

It was the place Mr Curran headed to each holiday, spring, summer or autumn, but he was surely unique amongst its inhabitants in that his continual passion for painting was pursued alongside a career as a teacher and, for a time, a publican.

He was born into the pub trade. His parents James and Jemima ran the Cross Keys Hotel in Dalkeith where he grew up and went to Dalkeith High School.

At 17 he went to Edinburgh College of Art where he won an Andrew Carnegie travelling scholarship in 1952, thanks partly to a young Sean Connery who was the sitter in the portrait he entered to clinch the award. His post-graduation year was spent in France and Spain before he began teacher training at Moray House in Edinburgh.

After a short spell in primary schools, he learned a trade as a mechanic during his two years' National Service in the RAF when he was based in the Isle of Man and Dumfriesshire.

At the end of his service he applied to Midlothian Education Authority for a teaching job and spent a couple of years at Loanhead Junior Secondary before moving to his old school, Dalkeith High, where he taught for another two years.

He then became principal teacher of art at Currie High School where he remained for the rest of his teaching life It was during that spell that he ended up as publican of the Artisan Bar, in London Road, Edinburgh.

His father had bought the bar in the 1940s and latterly it was run by his son Tommy. When he died in the late 1960s, Mr Curran became the licensee. Something of a workaholic, he would work all day at school, pop home for something to eat and then spend the evening running the family business. The bar was eventually sold in the mid 1970s and in 1989, after 27 years at Currie High, he took early retirement to concentrate on a full-time career as an artist.

Mr Curran, who was known as Frank, inspired countless young artists during his teaching years, undoubtedly due to his own strong work ethic, trademark style of tutoring and wise counsel, urging them to remain passionate, persistent and determined to succeed despite the inevitable mistakes they would make on the way. He worked in various media, painting seascapes and landscapes not only on Tiree but from his studio in Bonnyrigg, around the Edinburgh area and on Deeside, as well as portraits. He has works in private and public collections and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Mall Galleries in London as well as staging several solo exhibitions at the Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh.

In addition to his artistic talents, he was also an accomplished musician. He learned to play the accordion as a schoolboy, performed in Scottish country dance music in bands as a young man and was later invited to join David Sturgeon and his Waverley Scottish Dance Band, playing with them at functions from Scotland to Manchester, Cornwall and Zagreb.

He is survived by Rita, his wife of 55 years, children Alan, Hamish and Jean, eight grandchildren and his brother George.