The picture you're looking at was not, of course,
painted by Amelia Stonehard. The artist is in fact Jack Vettriano, who painted
"The Billy Boys" in 1998.
Jack Vettriano has emerged from the unlikely background of an early
career in the Scottish coalfields to become one of Scotland's best known
contemporary painters. He received no formal training and first submitted
works to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1988; both pieces were accepted and
sold. Since then his career has flourished, with exhibitions in Edinburgh,
London, Johannesburg and Hong Kong. He is represented by the Portland Gallery,
London.
Jack Vettriano's work is widely available in poster form (in the
UK at least). I saw "The Billy Boys" in the window of a local art gallery
one day and thought "that's a scene out of the House on the Hill" so I went
in and bought it and here it is.
.gif)
