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 […]
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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 […]
John Busby Seabird Drawing Course
The John Busby Seabird Drawing Course runs annually in June based near North Berwick in East Lothian. Now led by Darren Woodhead, Greg Poole and Kittie Jones, it is open to anyone with an interest in drawing birds in the field. It aims to nurture and encourage everyone with an enthusiasm for sketching birds, whether […]