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Bill Patterson
I will be releasing limited editions of a few of his selected works. The print shown here is from his collection of 'MUSSELBURGH MEN'. Oil paintings he painted of the old men and fishermen (and the flat caps they wouldn’t be seen dead without!) that used to haunt the Musselburgh harbour near his seaside home just outside Edinburgh. Online Shop: stores.ebay.co.uk/Uspattys-Paintings-and-Prints-Co  
 
 
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As a young art student my father escaped a strict Scottish military family and upbringing and eloped to London with his young pregnant girlfriend setting up home in a bed-sit in post-war Chelsea. He began earning money as a jazz pianist in the Eight Bells Pub in the Kings Road and as an occasional newspaper cartoonist. However his fortunes changed when he spotted a job as a package designer working for British American Tobacco Company. He started as a lowly artist in the design studios and all went smoothly until when on a flight back from a business trip he was chatting to a smart businessman who was idly playing with a beautiful gold cigarette case. My father was embarrassed by his crumpled Gold Flake box and self-consciously put it out of sight. It occurred to him if only a normal cigarette pack was more elegantly designed one wouldn’t need to be so put out. The Benson and Hedges gold pack was born. He became suddenly well known and much in demand and went on to design many famous brands, but this new found fame did not suit him at all as he was really a simple painter at heart. The stress and pressure of his new position affected his health and his family life whereupon he ran off to spend the rest of his days in his beloved Edinburgh. He became a reclusive character spending the latter years of his life painting and teaching. He would rarely sell his work (preferring to give them away to close friends and students) and exhibitions were very rare. Sadly he died working on producing a body of work he had summoned up the courage to show.
This was not to be... As his son I inherited all his pictures and drawings and as a huge fan of his bizarre eclectic and haunting style and humor have decided to market some prints of his oils and watercolors and maybe bring him a little recognition he so richly deserved albeit posthumously.