Gerard M BURNS ~ Rain in the City ✿

Gerard M Burns is a Scottish Painter of People and musician. One of Scotland’s best known portrait artists, Burns has been heralded as one of the country’s leading artists of the human condition, playing a pivotal role in promoting the genre. Born in Glasgow in 1961, Burns graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1983 with a degree in Fine Art.

For all Scots the rain is accepted as both a blessing and a curse, the bringer of life to these isles and the cause of both summer and winter misery. So the idea that any artist would wish to glorify this ever present element in Scottish life was to say the least received with some astonishment.

‘When I go in to the city after it has been raining, for me, the light is amplified so that not only do we have light above coming from the sky, we also have light reflecting up from beneath our feet from the pavements. The inclusion of the red coats originated specifically from a chance encounter with a friend i met in the city who happened to be wearing a bright red coat in this otherwise tonal environment. The contrast was overwhelming and I recognised it as a basic Scottish ‘trait’ where if in this tonal environment’ we want colour we have no choice but to add it ourselves’ - Gerard M Burns