The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Vettriano on depression and isolation
Jack Vettriano has revealed he is looking for someone to share his life, as he laid bare his battle with loneliness and depression.
He said: “I’ve had a terrible three years. I dislocated my shoulder a few years ago and that’s been troubling me. It’s my painting side.
“There are some things I was able to do with a paint brush that I can’t now. If I try it, a muscle cramps in my upper arm.
“Then last week I fell in the snow, damaging my leg. So I’ve not been painting. My exhibitions have been cancelled until next year. Anybody that tells you life gets easier as you get older is having you on.”
The 69-year-old is also afraid to return home for fear of contracting Covid, staying instead in a room in an Edinburgh hotel where he arrived just as the pandemic began – cut off from the brushes and easels at his workshop in London.
Jack said he is doing well despite the setbacks which include the end of what he described as a “destructive” relationship.
“I’ve had to go on a course of strong antidepressants because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me,” he added.
“And 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 back into one but as you get older you need a partner. That’s what I would like.”
Jack liked to pretend he was James Bond when he was younger. Yet he insists that, thanks to the working class values instilled in him by his father, Bill, he has always treated the famously sultry women in his paintings well.
“I was close to my dad,” he said. “He was a wonderful man.
“He never said, ‘Why don’t you study and go to university?’ He didn’t push me at all, but he did teach me right from wrong. If I had stayed in Methil I would probably be dead from a heroin overdose.”
As well as his workshop, Jack is cut off from his bike. He said: “In London I used to cycle around Battersea Park to keep fit. And 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.”
Although unable to pick up a brush for the moment, Jack said he still has plenty of good ideas, although the world’s current crisis does not figure highly.
He said: “When lockdown finishes and people get back to work the last thing people will want to see are paintings about a virus.
“There will be people out there who think that’s what people want so that’s what they’ll give them.
“I’ve got nothing to paint about the virus. It would be very easy to get access to a hospital ward given my popularity. But who wants to see a painting of somebody on a ventilator?”
Home gardens in cities and towns are the biggest source of food for pollinating insects such as bees and wasps, according to researchers.
The study, led by Bristol University and published in the Journal of Ecology, found that residential gardens accounted for 85% on average of nectar produced in urban areas.
Researchers found that three gardens generated on average each day around a teaspoon of the unique sugar-rich liquid found in flowers that pollinators drink for energy.
This is the equivalent to more than a tonne of food for an adult human and is enough to fuel thousands of flying bees.
The more bees and other pollinators can fly, the greater diversity of flora and fauna that will be maintained.
University ecologist Nicholas Tew said: “Although the quantity and diversity of nectar has been measured in the countryside, this wasn’t the case in urban areas, so we decided to investigate.
“We expected private gardens in towns and cities to be a plentiful source of nectar but didn’t anticipate the scale of production would be to such an overwhelming extent.
“Our findings highlight the pivotal role they play in supporting pollinators and promoting biodiversity in urban areas across the country.”
The research was carried out in partnership with the universities of Edinburgh and Reading, along with the Royal Horticultural Society.
It examined the nectar production in Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Reading.
Nectar production was measured in almost 200 species of plant.