WOMEN take their clothes off for Bill Blackwood. It's all in a day's work for the artist. His highly-charged. sensual portraits have produced a good
living for the Glasgow boy
who has travelled the world only to return home.
''What I have found,'' said Bill in his West End home, ''is that women of a certain age just love to get their kecks off.''
This rather unaesthetic language cannot disguise the craftmanship and personality that Blackwood brings to his work. If Blackwood exudes a certain confidence, even serenity, it is not difficult to ascertain where it comes from.
Blackwood has had difficulties in his life and he has survived them. He lost both parents at a young age, and has had three bouts with cancer. As a schoolboy he overcame first throat cancer then stomach cancer, surviving on a drip while his mother died of brain cancer in a nearby ward. It was when cancer returned in the 1990s that Blackwood realised that art had to be pursued to the full. When the illness was again beaten, Blackwood made his move. ''I decided then that what I wanted to do was paint and that is what I have done.''
Blackwood, a student at Glasgow Art School in the late sixties, has made a business out of his art. There is, not surprisingly, a market for work such
as Bonny Buns and Rubber Dollies. Blackwood commands about (pounds) 3000 a painting.
His latest work, though, concerns the beautiful game rather than beautiful women. It shows two boys pointing to their heroes, and it will be auctioned at the inaugural Hall of Fame dinner in Glasgow tomorrow. The proceeds will be split between the Scottish Football Museum and Childline.
The genesis of the painting has a routine story in that Blackwood was contacted through BT, sponsors at Hampden, who knew of his work and believed he could produce a fitting image for the event.
This link to business is
hardly unusual for Blackwood, who cheerfully describes his earlier career as that of a ''con artist'', working as he did in advertising. Indeed, his commercial career started immediately after graduating from Glasgow School of Art and then in America, where he
settled in Denver, Colorado, and worked for six years on a variety or projects including providing the design for hotels.
''There was only one hitch,'' Blackwood recalls. ''I was an illegal alien and was basically chucked out. Ironically, there was an amnesty two months later, but by then I was back in Edinburgh.''
The capital saw the flowering of Blackwood's advertising
talents and also a move into commercial art. He created sculptural and 3D installations on various sites in Britain and Europe for clients such as Babcock International, British Aerospace and the Scottish Office. Then came the cancer. Again.
Blackwood has since thrown himself into his work. His erotic portraits are carefully planned and beautifully constructed. His women models are volunteers and the initial photographs and the paintings are done on neutral ground in a Glasgow hotel.
If painting naked women is
a way of living, football is a
passion, though he admits the national game is ''in the doldrums''. But there is a footballing story behind his latest work.
Blackwood has a playing history. He explains: ''In 1965 I regularly played against Danny McGrain in schools football.''
Fingering his glasses, Blackwood continued: ''I was no way as good as Danny, of course. I was a blind bastard and just went around kicking people.''
This hardly original stratagem was, however, enough to get him trials with Glasgow schools, where he again met up with McGrain.
Decades passed and he was watching his old adversary on the television, when McGrain remarked: ''I just wanted to be Denis Law.'' This simple statement proved the inspiration for the work that will be auctioned tomorrow.
Blackwood explains: ''I thought that what Danny said was so true and that each of us all wanted to be a great footballer. The painting reflects that. The boys are pointing towards greatness and the plinths will be filled with the buyer's personal favourites out of the Hall of Fame. In a sense, whoever buys the portrait will be acquiring a work in progress.''
It is, after all, just a brush stroke from sexy women to sexy football.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article