Galleries: Linda McCartney - The life of this unassuming artist in a most telling and tender fashion

The exhibition has been put together by her husband Paul, together with their daughters Mary and Stella. The McCartneys worked closely with a Scottish curator, Sarah Brown, to mount the exhibition, which is having its first UK showing in Glasgow.

The photographs speak of Linda's life before and after she met Paul in 1967 through over 200 photographs, as well as various items shown in public for the first time. This includes one of her diaries from the 1960s, her cameras and photographic equipment. She died in 1998 at the age of just 56 and as this exhibition shows, she was working up until the end of her life.

It’s a big, expansive show with lots to take in; from images of some of the biggest names in pop and show business to intimate family photographs. The devil is in the detail in a host of small Polaroid shots (she created thousands) and contact sheets which highlight a boundary-pushing working method which was loose but at the same time tightly shot and framed.

This exhibition is a fascinating insight into the ever-enquiring mind of an artist and trained observer. Linda McCartney, neé Eastman, rarely went anywhere without her cameras and in the pre-digital age she had the luxury of being able to snap constantly. As one shot of BB King with his beloved guitar, Lucille, highlights, she was not afraid to go blurry if it conveyed the effect she was searching for in a portrait.

From Mick Jagger to Aretha Franklin and a group of "old biddies" in raincoats on a Campbeltown street, she brought humanity to all her subjects. Stand-out photographs for me were the early portraits of stars caught unawares by Linda. One shows her friend Janis Joplin grinning broadly and brandishing a bottle of Southern Comfort. The caption beside the shot tells us Linda said Janis drank to boost her confidence before going on stage. There's another telling portrait of Mick Jagger during a promotional party on the Hudson River in 1966. In an unguarded moment, Jagger, in shades, looked behind him to find Linda's lens seeking him out.

One picture shows a 23-year-old Jim Morrison on stage with The Doors photographed at a tiny New York Club called The Ondine Club in 1967. The caption says Morrison "wasn't sure about being photographed as he said Linda's work revealed so much about her subject." This much is true.

The photographer is put in the picture herself time and time again by Paul, but Morrison also turned the lens on Linda. There's two portraits of Linda in the show taken by him; one shows a ridiculously sexy Linda lying on a bed in New York in 1967 while another, taken a year later, has Linda, camera in hand, glancing askance at him.

The portraits are fascinating, but the friend I went with to see the show fell in love with her more domestic work, particularly a 1996 silver-bromide print, Through a Glass Teapot, which shows the vessel half-filled with hot water sitting on a table in the great outdoors. Blurry upside down trees are reflected in the teapot.

The family photos will resonate with most people. I overheard one woman looking at the contacts sheet which led to the famous picture of Paul on a gate in Kintyre say: "It's just a dad mucking around with his kids…"

Sir Paul McCartney on his late wife Linda's photography ahead of Glasgow exhibition

Linda liked to catch her subjects off guard. If this meant taking pictures of locals in the wing mirror of the car in Kintyre, where the McCartney family had a home, or snapping her husband in the rear-view mirror of their car while driving through London, so be it.

Linda Louise McCartney was born in the affluent suburban town of Scarsdale, New York, on September 24 1941. One of four siblings, her parents were both born into Jewish immigrant families. Her father, Leopold Vail Epstein, changed his name to Lee Eastman when he became a lawyer specialising in entertainment law in New York for famous clients, such as musicians Tommy Dorsey and Jack Lawrence. He also represented fine artists; including Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko; the former being a family friend who ended up being featured in portraits taken by Linda. A couple of these are on show in Kelvingrove.

After graduating from Scarsdale High School in 1960, she studied at the University of Arizona, where she majored in art history. Linda's training in practical photography was minimal, but she studied the work of Walker Evans Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston at night classes in Arizona and that inspired her to buy her first camera.

She became a professional photographer in the mid-1960s and quickly made a name for herself by capturing the cool, laid-back vibe of the New York music scene of the Swinging Sixties.

In 1968, she was the first female photographer to have her work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with a portrait of Eric Clapton. She met Paul in May 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert when she was in London on an assignment to photograph musicians in London and the rest is history…

Following her marriage to Paul in 1969, Linda’s photographs become more intimate, exploring the natural world, family life and social commentary. An exhibition highlight is a series of painterly blue cyanotype prints – or "sun prints” – made in the 1980s while experimenting with the early photographic processes of mid-nineteenth century photography pioneers WH Fox Talbot and Sir John Hershel. Linda's images, printed using the same method Hershel employed, feature her kids, horses, and simple architectural details.

This is the first UK showing of the exhibition – it has been shown in Vienna, Montpellier and Seoul – but there was a clear feeling in the pre-publicity from her family that Linda would have been delighted it was in Scotland because of the family's connection to the west coast in particular.

So far, Glasgow has welcomed it with open-arms – and ears. At the opening reception last week, Chris Nickol, the organist whose version of David Bowie's Life on Mars on the day he died in 2016 went viral on social media, blasted out a series of Beatles and Wings hits on Kelvingrove's famous organ.

What comes across most strongly in this exhibition is that Linda McCartney was possessed of a lively creative spirit and an innate warmth which led to a harmonious body of work which sings of a life well-lived.

The Linda McCartney Retrospective, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Argyle Street, Glasgow G3 8AG, 0141 276 9599, https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/linda-mccartney-retrospective. Until Jan 12, 2020. Mon-Thur & Sat, 10am-5pm; Fri & Sun,11am-5pm. £7/£5

Sir Paul McCartney on his late wife Linda's photography ahead of Glasgow exhibition

Critic's Choice

Coming Alive is a new body of work by Edinburgh-based artist and new mother, Alice Boyle. Boyle grew up in Kelburn Castle in Ayrshire and initiated its hugely popular Graffiti Project in 2006. For many years she has sketched after daily meditation, creating odd and often distorted creatures that come streaming to mind as soon as her pencil hits the paper. Last year she decided to bring these characters to life, creating a unique world that is as strange as it is familiar.

Boyle’s new exhibition, which opened yesterday at Linlithgow Burgh Halls, has been inspired by the title of her previous exhibition, Think Less, Feel More. While her past show was a visual comment on the relationship between thinking and feeling, here, she has chosen to take a less complex approach, running with an idea she describes as "powerful yet simple".

She explains: “I felt compelled after giving birth in 2017 to breath life into these unborn creatures: that are filled with all the same fears, passions and flaws as anybody else. They may be messengers of my subconscious giving me insights into the human condition and myself."

Mindful of Carl Jung's belief there were things in his dreams that came from somewhere beyond himself, Boyle has always believed we can delve into this Jungian realm through, sleep, meditation, prayer, ritual or creativity.

Working with layers of plaster and acrylic paint on hardboard, she makes marks using various utensils, forcing her to be spontaneous as the final layer of plaster dries rapidly. The medium forces her to be loose while allowing the work take on its own life.

Alice Boyle: Coming Alive, Linlithgow Burgh Halls, The Cross, Linlithgow EH49 7AH. www.aliceboyle.co.uk. Until October 13. Open 9am–5pm Mon–Sat. Sun 11am–5pm

Don't Miss

The very singular interpretations of still-life and landscapes painted by award-winning artist Liz Knox are instantly recognisable. Her tabletop-style still lifes pulse with colour, form and depth, effortlessly melding snapshots of street or studio scenes. Her people-less landscapes depict the beauty and drama of remote Highland locations, while reducing the scene to a kernel of what it feels like to be there.

Singular Interpretations by Liz Knox, The Grilli Gallery, 20A Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ, 0131 261 4264, www.art-grilli.co.uk, Until 20 July. Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm. Closed Sunday.