Portrait of the artist as a young man

I first bought a drawing from Michael McVeigh thirty years ago, when he was a struggling local artist, no doubt starving in a garret with only a candle to keep him warm. The drawing was of a carthorse, which were then just coming to the end of their use in Edinburgh to drive the St Cuthbert's milk floats.

He's still selling his paintings and drawings around town, only now he has a donkey jacket as well as a candle to keep him warm. Apart from a few more gray hairs, he doesn't appear to have aged - he looks just the same as I remember him. I suspect he keeps a self portrait in his attic that's getting more wizened and twisted every year.

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