Welcome
Although
encouraged by an Art teacher (David Dye) to apply to go to Art
College
when I left secondary school it wasn't until 1974 that I finally
returned to formal
education. In the intervening years I embarked on a series of
occupations
(including six years in the Army) and sojourns which on reflection
where also an
important element of my education. It should be added that
towards the end of my six years engagement in the Army I had become
something of an anti-militarist. My Commanding Officer most
certainly didn't appreciate my joining the huge Anti-Vietnam War
Rallies in Central London at the time, but he couldn't stop me from
doing so either.
It was on one hitch-hiking episode from Newark, New Jersey to Canada in 1972 that I arrived by a stroke of good fortune at a place called Stoney Creek, Ontario with just 10 dollars to my name. I will always be grateful to Roger Jackson for employing me to pick fruit at his farms in Stoney Creek and at the Devil's Punchbowl. This temporary employment maybe even saved me from the ditches and gutters amidst the Niagara Escarpment. Living on the edge at this time also gave me pause for thought and also motivated me to return to Educations and Art. Around this time too my eyes were opened to Canadian Art and in particular to the emblematic Canadian landscape painters Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.
Returning to Dundee with a renewed appetite for
knowledge and learning I eventually enrolled at Dundee College of
Commerce to take Highers in Art, English, Geography, Modern Studies
and 'A' Level Art. During this period I was also able to put
together a portfolio of work for entry to Duncan of Jordanstone
College of Art. On graduating from the Art College in 1980 I
enrolled at the Dundee College of Education to gain a teaching
certificate in Secondary Education (Art). For the following
20 years I took short and long term supply teaching work in the
greater Tayside area. I also made good use of the WASPS
(Workshop Artists Studio Provision Scotland) at St. Mary's Forebank
school in the Hilltown and in Meadowmill, just 100 yards from
Verdant Works Jute Museum.
- Partick Donachie, 2014
'Visual Recollections' now showing at Verdant Works, Dundee until 12th October.