Retired engineer bright and bold in solo outing

IT TOOK him a very long time, but retired technical engineer Roy Anderson finally has his own art exhibition, proving it’s never too late to realise one’s aspirations.

The 77-year-old Glasgow-born artist has filled both floors of the Coach House Art Gallery with his intensely colourful abstract works which he paints in his Beacon Bay garage studio.

“I’ve been nagging Leon [du Preez, Ann Ann Bryant Art Gallery curator] for an exhibition and he finally felt I had found my style and was ready. I have called it Pigments of my Imagination.

Anderson’s arty inclinations were put on the backburner when his father pointed him firmly in the sensible direction of “learning a trade”.

“I became an apprentice steam engine fitter with British Rail, but when I emigrated to South Africa aged 21, I was captivated by the colours, intensity of light and cerulean [deep blue] skies.

“It was an artist’s paradise,” said Anderson, who spent his evenings painting after work.

Ten years ago, he retired as a quality manager, turned his hobby into a full-time occupation and attended four years of art classes at the Belgravia Art Centre.

While his early work initially depicted more “traditional” subjects, such as land and seascapes, he decided to swing in an entirely new direction and his mixed-media works are now saturated with bold colours in geometric blocks or psychedelic swirls.

“I wanted to do something different. I use printer’s ink because it’s brighter than oils.”

And, although he has participated in several group exhibitions, this is his first solo outing.

“It’s great. At the exhibition opening, my friends were astounded – they had never seen this side of me.”

● Pigments of my Imagination is up at the Coach House until June 24.