* JAMES HARDIE (SCOTTISH 1938 - 2024), PROPELLER -DECLAN CURTIS PILOT

oil on canvas, signed titled and dated 2005 label verso unframed overall size 126cm x 140cm Note: James Hardie was an artist, pilot, writer and educator. He studied at GSA, 1955-59, received The Keith Award 1958, The Chalmers Bursary 1959, The Torrance Award in 1968 among others. Hardie returned as a painting lecturer 1980-1995. His first major art project, inspired by the rock formations at Fife Ness was the subject of a film; The Painters Landscape” commissioned by The Royal College of Art in 1967. Prime time 6pm BBC news broadcast his inaugural flight on an old Messerschmidt plane that he rebuilt by hand over many years, with help from British and French engineers. Hardie’s art explores the direct physical encounter of nature by exploring ways of traveling though it - the airplane, motorbike, boat. For Hardie, the wide open spaces in the Scottish landscape where sea meets land were a constant source of inspiration. He felt Scotland gave him everything and more than he needed. He was a fierce advocate of truth and speaking directly from first hand experience. When teaching at Aberdeen College of Education, he invented, together with his boss and fellow pilot Bill Burns, the concept of “Area Investigation“. Hardie would fly his students to remote islands all over Scotland and encourage them to engage with the people, landscape and culture in order to broaden their experience of life and art practice in new and surprising ways. Public collections include Aberdeen Art Gallery, University of Stirling, Scottish Arts Council, Contemporary Art Society, Kendal Art Gallery, Hospitalfield, South Lanarkshire Council, Low Parks Museum.