AN art lover in the Highlands is trying to track down the mystery artist behind his amazing collection of 27 rare, perfect replicas of World War One oil paintings.

David Boothby, 59, bought the impressive art collection a year ago and has been trying to track down their creator ever since.

All that is known of the artist is that he is called ‘Ray’ and is possibly a former worker at the Vauxhall car factory in Luton.

But it seems the paintings may have found themselves a long way from Ray’s ‘home’ - as 550 miles away, in Dingwall, David is leading the search for the lost artist.

Antiques dealer David, who recently retired to the Highlands, has spent almost a year trying to find out more information about Ray.

The 27 oil paintings, painted on canvas, are all dated between 1981 and 1984 - but are exact replicas of paintings or prints produced during the Great War, which David says are hard to come by.

The paintings, all signed ‘Ray’ in the bottom left corner, mostly depict battle scenes from the Western front in Belgium and France during the First World War.

One painting, copied from a lithographic print, shows Lance Corporal Michael O’Leary, of the Irish Guards, charging the German line in February 1915, in Cuinchy, France.

The lithograph shows the moment just before Lance Corporal O’Leary single-handedly killed five enemy soldiers and three machine gun teams.

And another of the paintings shows the famous scene of British troops dribbling a football over the mile and a half of ground they had to cross as they advanced in July 1916.

David, a former school master originally from Hertfordshire, said: “The paintings came with very little information - but I like a good mystery.

“What’s really fascinating is that the details are exactly right - the uniforms are accurate, the weapons are right. You don’t often find that with First World War paintings.

“That’s how we knew that the artist, Ray, must have painted them from original World War One paintings, or magazine articles, done at the time.”

David’s research into the paintings and their artist has been so thorough, that he has even managed to track down most of the original images that the paintings were copied from.

And with the help of historians Rob Kirk and Dan Hill, he dug out some information that suggested ‘Ray’ may well have worked as a technician for Vauxhall in Luton, Beds., during the early 1990s.

After some investigation, Dan Hill was contacted by a man who claimed that someone by the name of Ray had sketched him in the early 1990s - and that the style of painting matched perfectly.

The man said that he and Ray had worked together at the Vauxhall factory, where Ray was a “skilled technician” in the template department.

But David said: “This man said Ray had been older than him, and he was about to turn 91 himself. So I suspect that Ray is no longer with us.”

“I’ve tried every possible angle I can to find the artist.

“I have traced these paintings back to what I believe was a deceased estate - but every lead has gone cold.

“It’s just fascinating. Every painting has got a story to it.”

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