‘Reminiscence’ exhibit features 60’s celebrities
Illustrator explores era’s people and events
An artist is holding his first solo exhibition of art and illustration with the backing of a couple of “cultural giants” – Sir Boyd Tunnock and Lord Julian Fellowes.
Bill Stewart, 60, a portrait illustrator who lives in Mossend, will be displaying his unique artwork at his Reminiscence exhibition at the Loyola Centre in Wishaw.
“The exhibition is themed around the early 1960s,” said Bill.
“There’s a big difference between illustration and fine art.
“I’m not a painter, I’m an illustrator. I sit with the person and I sit and draw them on the spot, a kind of caricature. I’m a dying breed probably.
“I’m a very traditional illustrator and I’m I using the same vintage styles and techniques used by the legen legendary illustrator heroes of that deca decade.
“I was w trained in the early 1980s when Macs and PCs didn’t exist, it was wa pens on paper and the guys who taught me are long dead.”
Th The Reminiscence exhibition will feature a host of people and hist historical events.
“You will see hand- drawn i illustrations l lu that will be rec recognisable,” Bill continued. “M “Mostly portraits but other thi things as well.
“A lot of times you can go to art galleries and think, ‘ What am I looking at?’, or, ‘I don’t understand that’.
“I’ve just finished one last week of the Great Train Robbery in 1963. I’m a big fan of the story of Kennedy assassination and I’ve done one of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby and sent it over to Texas. They wanted to interview me, but I declined as they probably wouldn’t understand a word I was saying.”
The art event is being sponsored by Lord Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downtown Abbey, and Sir Boyd Tunnock – the inventor of the Lanarkshire company’s famous tea cake.
“I’ve never met Sir Boyd Tunnock but when I decided to have this last year I thought I’d try and get sponsorship”, Bill revealed.
“When I do an illustration of a celebrity I send them two copies and tell them to keep one. I ask them to autograph the other and send it back to me. I’d drawn the cast of Downtown Abbey, and they’d autographed them and sent them back.
“I just thought I’d ask Lord Julian Fellowes for sponsorship and he wrote me a cracking email back and gave me a contribution for the exhibition.”
A work coach with the civil service in Motherwell, Bill has been friends with the legendary Italian actress Sophia Loren since his time at Glasgow School of Art.
The Oscar and Golden Globe winning actress who starred in a host of Hollywood movies during the 1960s and 70s has sent her best wishes for the event, in an endorsement of his work.
Bill first met the superstar when he was at Glasgow School of Art and has remained in touch with her ever since.
He said: “I first met her in the 80s when I was an art student and she was on a world tour. I sent her a drawing I’d done and she sent me her address. She lives in Geneva now but told me that growing up in Naples during the war she had nothing.
“In 2018 Jonathan Ross was interviewing Sophia in London and I went down and gave both of them theirs [portraits]. She’s a very humble woman and incredibly beautiful but she’s nearly 90 now. She has a remarkable face and is up there with Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.
“We’ve kept in contact and send Christmas cards and birthday cards. I let her know I was having the exhibition and it was 1960s- based. She sent me a photograph of her in 1966 in London and wrote right across the top of it, ‘ Bill, great success with the exhibition. Happy 60th birthday’.
Reminiscence will run at the Loyola Centre, Campbell Street, from Saturday, April 20, to Wednesday, April 24, admission is free.
I’m using same vintage styles and techniques of heroes of that decade