Ian S. Johnstone

Obituary

IAN S. JOHNSTONE

SCOTTISH LANDSCAPE ARTIST

9th September 1957 - 12th October 2009

Ian Johnstone was an amazingly talented painter. But he really didn't see himself as an artist. He just had an absolute passion for landscape and a burning desire to capture and preserve it. In his own words -

"I love the Scottish landscape and all its varied forms ... such a variety of landscape in such a small country ... I love the changing light and weather conditions. I want to try to fix it ... capture it ... Try and capture some mood or time of day or season ... and hope that it will strike a chord with other people who appreciate landscape."

"Because I love it, and it's not a job - it's a passion. It's an obsession ... it's an urge ... an all-consuming interest. It's not something you can switch on and off, it's something I've got to do."

"It's really just a development of my photography. I can't achieve what I want to achieve with photography, so I have to use oil paints. I'm not really an artist as such - I'm not interested in handling paint - it's the image that's important - or trying to fix the mood of the landscape."

" ... when you see something taking shape, when you capture something - that's very satisfying, but it's not an impressionistic satisfaction - I'm not trying to express myself. I want my paintings to be totally detached and have no artistic imprint in terms of brush strokes. ... Because my paintings are not about painting, they're about the actual scene, the actual image, the landscape, they're not about me. "

Ian Stewart Johnstone was born in Edinburgh on September 9th 1957. He graduated M.A. Hons (Politics) from the University of Edinburgh in 1979, and B.A. Hons (Painting) from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1984, having been awarded the Catriona White Prize for Drawing. While still at school he began exhibiting with the Corstorphine Art Group where his father J.H.B. Johnstone was a member, and they exhibited together at The Edinburgh Bookshop, The Hanover Gallery, and the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where Ian went on to become one of the most popular exhibitors. Despite success in Art Galleries he continued to support the Dunkeld Cathedral, St Columba's Hospice, and Cancer Research UK Exhibitions. A great many of his paintings are owned privately throughout Britain and abroad. He was married to the artist Derry Marwick.

Ian Johnstone was not just talented, but intelligent, principled, and generous. He was outwardly quiet and reserved, but if you were lucky enough to know him well, he was the most enormous fun to be with.

" The frustration of it all is I see so many pictures I want to do and I just feel I'll never have enough time to do them all. "