In the 1960s Alexandra Gardner studied at Glasgow School of Art, where David Donaldson was one of her chief mentors, and she then went on to teach there. She has created many exciting and refreshing portraits, figure studies and still-life paintings. Some aspects of this work are traditional: the head and shoulders view, forming a strong triangle in the picture space; the slightly tilted pose of the body, creating variations in light and shade as well as the impression of a lively chance encounter rather than long studio sessions. However, these classic ingredients are transformed into a thoroughly twentieth-century image by Gardner’s exuberant, yet marvellously controlled, use of colour and pattern. The young man is in perfect harmony with his dynamic background, but he remains a distinct personality. The limpid serenity of his expression - at the very centre of the composition - gives him the nobility of a Renaissance princeling.

Alexandra Gardner, born 1945

Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, and brought up in Glasgow, Gardner developed an early interest in drawing, and this was encouraged by her parents. She was tutored in the Classical tradition at Glasgow School of Art under William Drummond Bone and David Donaldson from 1963 to 1968 and then joined the school's teaching staff. Visits to Italy brought her face to face with Renaissance painting of the fifteenth century as well as the work of such modernists as Giorgio Morandi. However, after she had been teaching for some twenty years, in 1989 serious illness forced her to leave the school. Since a second kidney transplant late in 1990 she has been able to concentrate with renewed vigour on her painting - portraiture and figure painting, interiors and still lifes.