Artist Lachlan Goudie

ARTIST AND TV PRESENTER LACHLAN GOUDIE TELLS JAN PATIENCE ABOUT HIS MISSION TO CELEBRATE THE NATION’S ARTISTIC TREASURES

ARTIST, writer and TV presenter Lachlan Goudie is a man on a mission. That mission? To loosen the stays around the story of Scotland’s art, while painting a vivid and deeply personal picture of how 5000 years worth of creativity has shaped the nation.

“We have all become a bit snooty about art,” Goudie declares as we discuss his latest creation, a handsome hardback book called The Story of Scottish Art, via FaceTime. “Curators often build a perimeter wall around art but artists have traditionally performed a practical role in society. Only recently have artists become cerebral beings. The idea of craft has always been important and that is what I have tried to get across.”

Enthusiasm is Goudie’s default position. Anyone who has watched him in the likes of BBC’s Big Painting Challenge and Live Drawing Live! will testify to that. He has also presented several documentaries on art, including The Story of Scottish Art, from which this book sprang. Communicating his love of art – as both practitioner and communicator – is central to his character.

The Story of Scottish Art emerged from a four-part TV series for the BBC of the same name which was presented by Goudie. The series aired in 2016. He says: “It took me four years to write. In between times, I was making television programmes, making work for exhibitions and overseeing my dad’s estate and exhibitions. Two kids were born during that time too. So I was pretty busy!”

His style of presenting is expansive and enthusiastic; much like his powers of description on the page. His painting style is also full of brio, with an expressive use of colour and a confident line. He spent seven years documenting the construction of several ships at the Govan BAE Systems shipyard, including the last vessel to have a traditional launch on the slipways of the Clyde, HMS Duncan. He created over 70 drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures for this series; his skill as a draughtsman rising to the surface at every turn. Tender portraits of shipyard workers contrast with complex depictions of the interiors of ships under construction.

The son of celebrated Scottish painter, Alexander (Sandy) Goudie and his French wife, Marie-Renee, Lachlan Goudie grew up immersed in art. He was born in 1976 into a household, where, as he writes in the book, “drawing, painting and sculpture were the lifeblood of daily existence.” The youngest of three children, within weeks of his birth,