“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 […]
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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 […]
1940’s birdwatching map
I recently found this map of various walks around Menston in Yorkshire which John had annotated with delicate drawings of the different species of birds he saw. The family estimate that this was drawn up in the mid 1940’s when John was a teenager. In his book Land Marks and Sea Wings he wrote this about his […]
Twelve Winded Sky
This early oil painting by John Busby was recently returned to the family by the Don Valley Academy in Doncaster where it had been hanging for very many years. The date of the picture, 1956, is the same as the opening of the school so it may have been commissioned for it [See Update]. When the […]
Drawing the birds from the garden
In 2011, I persuaded Dad to let me video him while he drew the garden birds coming to the bird feeder outside his dining room window. This bird feeder was a magnet for all the small birds in the area, and regularly attracted a wide variety of species. Sitting in comfort at the dining […]
A Portrait of the Wild – Summer
“I think what I want people to feel when they look at a nature painting of mine is that they wish they had been there”
Christ in Glory – mural
This magnificent mural in the Scottish Episcopal Church of St Columbas-by-the-Castle in Edinburgh was painted by John Busby in the late 1950’s. Some digging in the National Records of Scotland office brought to light the vestry minutes at the time the mural was commissioned and a Church Newsletter from April 1981 was unearthed which had […]
Mural Notes by the Artist
St Columba’s Mural Notes by the Artist “The mural was painted in 1959 in place of the original stained glass window, bricked up in 1957. Mark Kemp instigated the original idea and the theme of the painting, though changes were made as the design progressed, under the guidance and encouragement of the new Rector, George […]
Commissioning of the mural in St Columba’s by the Castle 1959
Notes from the Vestry minutes 1957-1960 With the stained glass in the original East Window of St Columba’s in a very poor state of repair, the church considered three options: to repair the glass (at the huge cost of £500), to fill in the windows making a complete East wall for a mural or wooden […]