Award-winning sculptor well-known for workshops
Renowned sculptor Martin Rayner was a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, whose work is held in private and public collections throughout the world.
Mr Rayner had a long association with Dundee, where he operated a studio for a time, and was also involved with arts in Fife. He was 57.
Born in Dunbar, he spent his childhood years in North Berwick and Dunbar and, following his education, he became a journalist. He worked for 12 years on newspapers in Scotland - in Haddington, Edinburgh and Aberdeen - and New Zealand. In the latter, during the early 1970s, he was for a short time employed as a safari driver and he was also the manager of a tourist company.
Mr Rayner then worked his passage as a greaser on an Israeli cargo ship back to the United Kingdom, where he resumed his journalistic career.
He eventually took up studies at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, in 1976. In 1979 he received the Duncan of Drumfork Scholarship from Duncan of Jordanstone and the following year the Robert Allison Purchase Prize from the Royal Scottish Academy.
He was awarded a diploma and post diploma, highly commended, in drawing and painting from the Dundee college in 1981.
During the period from 1984-86, he was based at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop and in 1987 was appointed the first ever artist-in-residence at the Blair Atholl Estate in Perthshire, owned by the Duke of Atholl.
Among other accolades he received were the Jacob Mendelson Scholarship Trust Award, two awards from the Scottish Arts Council, the Hope Scott Trust Travel Award to Chicago and the Scottish Art Council's Artist in Industry Prize in 1986-87.
Mr Rayner, who worked in multimedia - mostly in wood - enjoyed numerous commissions during his career, including one in 1989 for the Dundee Waterfront Commission through the Scottish Development Agency, one in 1991 for Kirkcaldy Art Gallery - where he was artist-in-residence for a time - the national headquarters of Scottish Nuclear the following year and, in 1994, he was the invited artist for the 50-edition screenprint for the Dundee Printmakers' Workshop.
He was also commissioned to undertake interior work during the reconstruction of
Dairsie Castle, near Cupar.
Earlier this year he designed, carved and painted a new donation box, commissioned by the Friends of Camperdown House, Dundee, which is installed in the entrance foyer. Under the legend Sovereigns, Ducats, Groats, etc, it shows a ship with billowing sails cresting a wave against a background of an incredibly red sunset. The lower section depicts the sea, complete with fish, with slots for coins and notes.
Mr Rayner was also well-known for his workshops throughout Scotland, including master-craft projects in Aberdeen. For a time he operated a studio at Meadowmill
in Dundee.
He was a visiting lecturer during the 1990s to art colleges in Edinburgh, Cork, Dundee, Leith, Aberdeen and Liverpool.
He exhibited widely, both in one-man and group exhibitions, across the United Kingdom and abroad, including the US, Sweden and Germany.
A former member of the Council of the Society of Scottish Artists, he had exhibited at the society's annual exhibition and the Royal Scottish Academy's annual show in Edinburgh on a regular basis since 1981.
Among those who own his works are the Scottish Arts Council, Fife Council, NHS Fife, Aberdeen, Dundee and Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, in addition to collectors in Switzerland, France, the US and Germany.
Mr Rayner also studied for a postgraduate degree in social work at Dundee University to allow him to become involved in work in art therapy.
He is survived by his four children, Simon, Samantha, Lottie and Chloe.
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