Collection: Ian Johnstone (1957-2009) Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Ian Johnstone (1957-2009) was born in Edinburgh, and graduated M.A Hons (Politics) from the University of Edinburgh in 1979, and B.A. Hons (Painting) from Edinburgh College of Art in 1984, and was 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 various venues including The Pitlochry Festival Theater, where Ian Johnstone went on to become one of the most popular exhibitors. Despite achieving considerable success when showing at several well known 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. Ian died after a short illness on the 12th of October 2009. Ian Johnstone was 52 years old. With his sudden and unexpected passing, the Scottish art world lost a talented painter and a gracious, principled and generous man.

Ian Johnstone's favorite subject to paint was the Scottish landscape in all of its variations. He 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." Johnstone praised the country for having "such a variety of landscape in such a small country." For Johnstone, painting was an important as breathing, and that he painted "because I love it, and it's not a job, it's a passion. It's an obsession and all-consuming interest. It's not something you can switch on and off, it's something I've got to do."Ian Johnstone created sweeping landscapes and cityscapes with such painstaking detail and care that his pieces are sure to be a focal point in any room.