The bastard motivation of passion and obsession drove
Stewart to his canvases. The early morning
had begun to leach a grey dullness from the chill summer night. A thick palette board he’d left on the chair
a few hours ago was taunting him with its gelled pigments smeared and globbed
in vibrant discord. Stained rags lay
matted and stiff around the base of the easel and around the studio where they
had been dropped onto the colour encrusted floorboards days, weeks and years
ago. The room was a complete chaos
encasing another astounding work of focus, depth and clarity on canvas. Similar pristine images shone from countless abandoned
and partially complete canvases laid angularly against the walls, the furniture
and nestling on the piled detritus of
the room.
What he called the studio was a front room upstairs, usually
the main bedroom. It was in one of the
damp stone terraces crammed into the bleak back streets of
Ayreshire, three down from a derelict pub and a bleak co-op. It was the only room in the socially funded
house that glimpsed the southern sky and could steal any benefit from daylight. It had been Stewart’s retreat and sanctuary
for 20 years. Two decades of chasing
perfection in his style of almost transparent oil painting. His works had
developed over this time and become fantastical creations of layer upon layer
of disparate images all interlinked and visible through each other. Each layer held a story with related meaning
and subtext to the greater story told by the finished work. Painted transparent images laid one over each
other like each were on a gossamer film.
Stewart knew he had developed an exquisite and deceptive technique that
took the eye to depths of perspective and wonder. He knew he had broken new ground, he knew he
was doing something the art world would eventually recognise. This canvas, the
one he’d titled ‘Inspiration’ was one of four in a series but he knew it would
be this one that was going to make his name.
The Scottish Academy submission dates were three days away
from closing and this work was complete, along with three lesser but related
works. Stewart cleared a space to prop
them. Working without the uncertainty of
previous years he placed one beside the other and finally took the final piece
off the easel to take it’s position next to the triptych. The display was stunning, pleasing,
fulfilling, a justification of dedication and a clear reflection of the faith and
support Jillie had given him. The four
works were also an acknowledgement to the facility that Glenn had invested in him
by providing a stipend, a goal and a contract for publication of his work in
limited edition.
One never knows if an artist will become popular but Glenn
had a better eye than most dealers when it came to commercialism of
contemporary art. He had a strong gut
feel that Stewart’s unique style would tap a niche of collectors to be milked. There was no way he could have known that six
weeks after signing Stewart to his company that the Scottish Academy would
award ‘Inspiration’ its highest praise and award. There was no possible indication that from
that endorsement the Savoy in London would offer Stewart the chance to be
Artist in Residence for 2013. Until 2012 The Savoy had not had an artist in
residence since Claude Monet so the appointment of Stewart, a little known, no,
an unknown Scottish painter had set the art critics into a spin. Estelle Lovatt on the BBC has been quoted to say Stewart was the one new
artist for speculators to invest in for now and for the aesthetics of the
future to marvel and comment on.
Stewart had always known.
