In the late 1990’s John Busby did a series of small ‘greyscale’ watercolours for The Herald newspaper in Scotland. Each was of a single species of bird and was used for the ‘Birdwatch’ column in the Saturday edition. Birdwatch – the ice hunter Some of the articles can still be found in the archive [search […]
Master Wildlife Artist 2009
In 2009 John Busby was honoured by the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, USA, becoming their Master Wildlife Artist for that year. The museum has run its flagship Birds in Art exhibition since 1976 attracting the very best wildlife art from the USA and internationally, but a Master is not designated every […]
Gannets on the Bass Rock – Watercolour
One of the exciting aspects of gradually opening drawers and exposing hidden corners in John Busby’s studio is finding stunning works like this. No, it’s not the famous Gannets on the Bass Rock, an oil that has been exhibited many times and appears in Land Marks and Sea Wings (p59) but a watercolour. The oil was one of […]
Garden birds on a bird feeder
This was a favourite subject matter for Dad, but usually executed in characteristically free-flowing pencil drawings and watercolour. This is a rare oil painting on the subject. A peanut feeder has hung on the wire balustrade outside the dining room window since the house was built, feeding many generations of robins, chaffinch, nuthatches, a great […]
Book Review – TLS, Mark Cocker
Land Marks and Sea Wings “The author’s photograph used on the dust jacket for this lovely volume of paintings depicts the artist looking a remarkable twenty to thirty years younger than his true age. Perhaps it’s this famous vitality that has allowed John Busby, now well into his eighth decade, to sustain a reputation as […]
Landscape for a Hunting Kestrel
Very many of Dad’s big landscapes put the viewer on a high point looking down, often looking across from one side of a valley to the other, or in the case of the many rock pool paintings, looking vertically down. Here we are so high above the landscape looking down that we have no view […]
Biography
John Philip Busby (1928 – 2015) John Philip Busby was born in Bradford in 1928 and attended Ilkley Grammar School. After National Service, he studied at Leeds College of Art and then at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) where he was awarded post-graduate and major travel scholarships. On return from France and Italy he was […]
Ascent of Pigeons 1952
“I keep pigeons: they’re not pigeons” I found this black and white photo in a scrapbook alongside a newspaper cutting of an exhibition. The reviewer liked the picture ‘for its colour, sense of space and movement. (This in spite of a fancier who insisted on telling me, “I keep pigeons: they’re not pigeons”). Sadly there […]
Bursary application deadline 30th November 2017
The deadline for applications for the SWLA bursaries is fast approaching. These generous bursaries cover the fees for the course and a contribution towards living expenses for the week. Details are on the SWLA website. NOTE: places on this very well regarded course fill up very quickly. If you are considering going do get […]
Twelve Winded Sky – update
I recently came across archive material relating to this big picture and others that John Busby painted in those early years. In my grandfather’s scrapbooks dating back to the 1950’s were newspaper cuttings and exhibition programmes, receipts and letters relating to his son’s early career– a fascinating glimpse into the different world that is […]