Jack Vettriano has donated a drawing of Beautiful Dreamer to an auction to raise funds for a Welsh art gallery under threat of closure . Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw gallery in Pwllheli, North Wales.The drawing on an A6 card, shows the image of a woman standing at the window in Vettriano’s London studio. It is the first drawing he has ever submitted for public display. “Beautiful Dreamer” will be auctioned, along with 11 other works , in an effort to raise enough money to save the gallery – one of the oldest in Wales – from closure. It will feature in the auction this Saturday alongside works from selected artists including Wrexham-born Keith Bowen, Gareth Parry, William Selwyn and Welsh concert singer Bryn Terfel.
The gallery’s director, Gwyn Jones, revealed that significant attention has already been paid to Vettriano’s piece. According to the BBC, he said: “We’ve already had substantial interest with people wanting to place phone bids. The reserve is £5,000 and we’re hoping it will make £10,000.”
Jack Vettriano was born in St Andrews , Fife, Scotland in 1951 and grew up in the mining town of Methil . He was raised in poverty – he lived with his mother, father and older brother in a spartan miner’s house, sharing a bed with his brother and wearing hand-me-down clothes. From the age of 10, his father sent him out doing any job that would earn money. His father took half his earnings. After leaving school at 15, he followed his father down the mine, working as an apprentice engineer. Vettriano took up painting as a hobby in the 1970s when a girlfriend bought him a set of watercolours for his birthday and from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.
In 1984, Vettriano first submitted his work to an art exhibition in the museum . Jack Nicholson, Sir Alex Ferguson , Sir Terence Conran and Sir Tim Rice are amongst his fans .
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