Art School

On the last day of our Mackintosh Tour I took the group up to the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art.

While my group were being taken round the building by one of the students I decided to go and explore the entrance to the Art School. The building has such amazing details and never ceases to amaze me at the creativity of Mackintosh. Both the in-door and the out-door caught my eye and I decided to combine them in an unusual way. Definitely worth looking large.

We then made our way down to Kelvingrove Art Gallery where I took them around the Mackintosh and Glasgow Style Gallery. After lunch I managed to get tickets to the Jack Vettriano Exhibition.

Although Vettriano is Britain's most popular artist, outselling Dali, Monet and Van Gogh, he is not liked by the art establishment. You just have to look at the review in today's Scotsman to see what I mean.

Sir Terence Conran, who commissioned Vettriano to paint a series of oils now hanging in his Bluebird restaurant complex in London, joined the criticism: 'They turn their backs on him because his work has been reproduced on posters, which I think is incredibly elitist and snobbish. In Scotland the art establishment has sneered at him because he is self-taught.

'He's not a Young British Artist, he's doing something different, but just as the American artist Edward Hopper is revered, I hope some of that could rub off on Vettriano.'

After our tour of Kelvingrove we then headed over to The Willow Tea Rooms to have a cream tea. We also managed to take in the excellent Archie Forrest exhibition in the Billiard Room.

The tour is finished and I am home relaxing with a glass of wine.