Stuart: Punk, Pens and a Lifetime of Art

Two weeks ago, Stuart’s artwork filled the walls of the community centre for his own exhibition. Behind every piece is a story: a Glasgow punk who taught himself to draw at the age of 10, tagged walls before anyone had heard of Banksy, and was paid to draw for a London comic magazine.

Stuart lives at Ardencraig Care Home, an Enhance Healthcare home, where the team has encouraged Stuart to tell his story and keep his art career going. We sat down with Stuart to hear how it all started.

It started with a comic

Stuart was born in Glasgow and has lived in the area all his life. Stuart was 10 when he picked up a copy of the sci-fi comic 2000 AD and decided that was what he wanted to do.

Nobody taught Stuart. “It took me years,” Stuart says. “You can’t do this overnight.” Stuart practised until the drawings looked right, and Stuart has never stopped.

Glasgow’s own Banksy

“I was into graffiti before Banksy,” Stuart says with a grin.

When the Buchanan Galleries were being built, a long blank wall ran along the site. “That wall was just asking for it,” Stuart says. Stuart and a pal brightened it up with a tag borrowed from a 2000 AD character, and everyone who knew Stuart recognised straight away that it was his work.

Later, Stuart had stickers printed with his artwork and left them on buildings across the city, like a calling card. “I wonder how many still exist,” Stuart says.

Punk, pedal power and a speed camera

Stuart was there when punk began in 1977. Stuart travelled to London and saw Sue Catwoman, one of punk’s icons, outside Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s famous shop. Stuart still has thousands of records, and some of his tattoos are artwork from the bands he loved.

A factory job didn’t last. “An ex-punk in a factory is not a good idea,” Stuart laughs. Instead, Stuart took an engineering drawing course to learn technical drawing, and a life drawing course to master anatomy.

Stuart also worked as a cycle courier. One day, flying downhill on a mountain bike, Stuart and a friend set off a speed camera. The police officer let them go. Stuart couldn’t face telling his colleagues that he’d been caught speeding on a pushbike.

The big break

In 1993, Stuart joined a queue of hopefuls in London, all after the same job drawing for a comic magazine. Stuart was one of the few who got it, earning £180 a page.

His girlfriend’s dad backed Stuart with £2,000 for a compressor and two airbrushes, which Stuart has used for much of his work since. When deadlines loomed, Stuart would draw for 48 hours straight, sleep, and then start again. “I start something, I draw it until it’s finished,” Stuart says.

Stuart works on cartridge paper and mount board rather than canvas, and his eye for detail is in every piece.

Still creating

Stuart keeps everything: his artwork, his records, and diaries going back to 1983. A book of his work is already out, and Stuart has enough unseen pieces for a second.

Stuart would love to see more art on Glasgow’s walls. “Put some colour on things,” Stuart says. “Give somebody something to look at other than a brick wall.”

His motto has stayed the same since he was a young punk: “I’m going to do art, and I’m going to listen to good music.”

Moving into a care home hasn’t stopped Stuart creating. With support from the team at Ardencraig, Stuart has kept painting and drawing, and his room has become his own personal gallery. The exhibition was a chance for everyone else to see it too.

Well done, Stuart, on a brilliant exhibition. We can’t wait to see what you make next.