VETTRIANO: LOOKING FOR LOVE AT 69
HIS paintings have featured a string of glamorous women.
But now Scottish artist Jack Vettriano is looking for a partner after the end of a ‘destructive’ relationship.
The 69-year-old has spent the coronavirus pandemic living in a grand hotel in Edinburgh. His brushes and easels remain at his London workshop but he fears returning home in case he contracts Covid-19.
The self-taught artist, who grew up in Methil, Fife, has revealed that he is struggling to cope in lockdown.
He told the Sunday Post: ‘I’ve had to go on a course of antidepressants because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I do suffer a bit from insomnia, especially when the future is uncertain.
‘You don’t have a partner, you’re 69, you’re cut off from your home. I’d like to find a partner but there’s no hint of that at the moment. I’m not in a hurry to get one but as you get older you need a partner.’
Vettriano also told of his struggles with a painful injury. He said: ‘I dislocated my shoulder three years ago and that’s been troubling me, it’s my painting side.
‘There were things that I was able to do with a paint brush that I can’t now. So I’ve not been painting, my exhibitions have been cancelled until next year. Anybody who tells you life gets easier as you get older is having you on. I want the people of Scotland to know I’m still here.’
He ruled out ever making art inspired by the pandemic. ‘I’ve got nothing to paint about the virus,’ he said.
‘I could take some photographs and paint from those but who wants to see a painting of someone on a ventilator?’ But despite his problems coping with lockdown – and missing the regular bicycle rides in London’s Battersea Park that keep him fit – Vettriano still considers himself to be young at heart.
He said: ‘I try to be fashionable without looking like a bloody idiot. Sometimes I have to shake myself and say, “Don’t try that, you’re 69”. In my head I’m 27.’