James Fairgrieve RSA RSW, born 1944

Born in Prestonpans, East Lothian, Fairgrieve studied at ECA in the 1960s and taught there until his retirement in 1998. His distinctive realist still lives use objects collected on walks - driftwood, stones, feathers - often combined with vegetables and fruit. His work is characterised by acute observation and detail, with the objects often placed against a dark background in the manner of Dutch Old Masters still lives. Precise, formal compositions create a sense of balance and an atmosphere of absorbed stillness. The produce in his paintings often comes from his garden, meaning that it is, in his words, “grown, painted, then eaten”. He lives in the Borders.