Initiation Games

Born in Edinburgh in 1952, Gordon drew and painted from early childhood, one of the good things to come from regularly being banished to his room! Even as a youth he had a pictorial, photographic memory, and the ability to see an object in his mind and then draw or paint it with reasonable accuracy was a skill he developed early on.

Gordon studied at Edinburgh College of Art, embarking upon a career in teaching until becoming a full-time painter in 1989. He is an elected Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour (1997), the Royal Glasgow Institute (1998) and the Royal Scottish Academy (2005).

Always thought provoking, Gordon’s work draws upon traditional iconography, news stories and visual puns, to create unexpected juxtapositions and perceptive visual commentaries. Gordon has always had a distaste for the “taken for granted”, and he enjoys looking beyond logic and everyday reasoning. He creates images which are arresting, in part down to the illusion of reality. When the obvious technical process is removed, something puzzling, witty, often irreverent, but always memorable, becomes apparent.