The Arts

THE WORK of one of Helensburgh’s outstanding architects of years gone by can still be admired around the town.

Robert Wemyss FI Arch (Scot), LRIBA, is not as well-known as his contemporaries Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William Leiper, but he contributed a great deal to the look of the town centre and other areas.

WHY the infant town of Helensburgh came to have a theatre is a mystery.

One source which does offer a few clues is the book “A Nonogenarian’s Reminiscences of Garelochside and Helensburgh and The People who Dwelt Thereon and Therein”, written by Donald MacLeod (1883).

THE PAINTER of a portrait of a young girl — acquired by the Anderson Trust Local Collection — has not been positively identified, but may have been a famous artist and illustrator who grew up in Rhu.

The painting came from the estate of the late Vea Black, who lived in Dunavon, Rhu, in 2001, and the artist is highly likely to be have been her ‘Uncle Archie’, A.S.Hartrick.

Charles Blatherwick's painting entitled 'The Coast Road' — perhaps the old Helensburgh pier from the east, with the Rosneath Peninsula beyond.

A LEADING Scottish artist of his time spent the final thirty years of his life enjoying living on the shores of the Gareloch.

Dr Charles Blatherwick, whose daughter Lily also was a well-known painter and printmaker, spent three decades at Dunaivon, Rhu, prior to his sudden death from a burst blood vessel in the brain at Fish House, Kirkcudbright, on September 17 1895.

THE TALK of the TV drama steamie in the spring of 2017 was a very talented Helensburgh-born actress.

Morven Christie, who says that she is beginning to wonder if she is becoming the go-to-actor for gutsy parts in top level drama series, was outstanding in the three-part BBC drama ‘The Replacement’.

A NEW novel has been named after former Helensburgh school Larchfield.

It has been written by Polly Clark, who herself lives quite close to the Colquhoun Street building, now converted into flats.

A HELENSBURGH man was not only one of the West of Scotland’s leading artists . . . he also taught thousands of young people to love art.

A PERMANENT multi-purpose Helensburgh tribute to famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in time for the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2018 was the dream of a Kilcreggan couple.

A WELL-KNOWN Helensburgh actress is one of the stars of the popular BBC TV drama series Call the Midwife.

HELENSBURGH'S Maggie Hamilton (1867–1952), a talented embroiderer and painter of flowers and still lifes, presents a fascinating case study of a woman artist at the turn of the century, who worked and exhibited prodigiously across the fine and decorative arts, and yet has now fallen into obscurity.

THE Helensburgh woman whose husband designed the Cenotaph in Hermitage Park and several important burgh buildings was herself a very talented artist.

A DOCTOR who has been described as Scotland’s greatest dramatist loved trips to Helensburgh and the Clyde seaside —but did not like living in the burgh.