Like most people who rush out of Glasgow Central Station and out to the city streets beyond, Robert McCaig has often been struck by the number of homeless people shivering in doorways, either begging or mutely passing the hours as people go about their business.

However, unlike most of his fellow citizens, the self-taught artist decided to do something about it by selling his artwork to help fund a new homeless support unit for the city, which he says will be funded and planned by people with personal experience of homelessness.

Mr McCaig, 32, from Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, who works for a removals firm, decided enough was enough one bitterly cold day early last year.

He says: “I came out of the railway station with my father and, within minutes, we had seen about 10 people sitting in doorways wrapped in sleeping bags,” he said. “I thought… this is awful. There must be something which can be done?

“I went home and couldn’t get it out of my mind. Maybe it’s to do with getting older and having a family of my own – my partner Ashley and I have a wee girl, Leaah. But I thought, ‘there must be something

I can do’. I have always been creative and came up with the idea I could make a collection of artworks to sell that referred to the homelessness situation.”

Since then, Mr McCaig has established Homeless Art Scotland and created

100 vibrantly-coloured original artworks, inspired by a mix of street art and ancient mythology. Limited edition prints of his work are now selling on Homeless Art Scotland’s new website, with all profits going towards building a homeless unit in Glasgow. The work is priced between

£60 and £90. Every person who buys a print will have their name inscribed on a brick within the walls of the proposed shelter.

READ MORE: Forty-five homeless people died in Glasgow last year, official figures show

An exhibition of Mr McCaig’s artwork in Braehead shopping centre was opened last week by Tam Cowan, football

pundit and presenter of radio show

Off The Ball,together with Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.

Like most artists, Mr McCaig has faced rejection along the way, including from Scotland’s arts funding body, Creative Scotland. The application was refused, he says, because he was an artist raising money for a good cause. “I was told if I would re-submit

my application for personal gain and take the homeless aspect out of it they would accept it.”

Undaunted, Mr McCaig contacted politicians and charities working with the homelessness sector. “I emailed every single MSP in Glasgow and received five responses of which only three believed in the project and wrote letters of endorsement. Once I had these in place, the next part would be seeing if people would like the artwork enough to buy it, so we put it on Instagram and the response was terrific.”

He was initially advised to donate proceeds from his artwork to homeless charities or help fund soup kitchens, but when his partner’s sister, Nicole Cameron, suddenly experienced homelessness first-hand, his thoughts started to change about the type of support that was needed.

Ms Cameron, 28, her partner Gary, and three children, Claire, eight,

Michael, four, and Jayson, three, found themselves homeless last April after their landlord had the house repossessed for non-payment of his mortgage.

The family was given temporary homeless accommodation by Glasgow City Council in a two-bedroom flat in a high-rise block in Knightswood. According to Ms Cameron, they were subsequently offered a house in Drumchapel, but they refused this offer.

Ms Cameron, who works in Poundland, said: “Because I said no, I have been taken off the list to be rehoused and

I now have to appeal against that to get back on the homeless care priority list. Michael is autistic and needs a stable home and this uncertainty is really difficult to live with.”

Seeing first-hand how homelessness affected Ms Cameron and her family gave Mr McCaig insight into how homelessness can affect anyone at any time.

“There is a stigma surrounding homelessness that everyone has chaotic lifestyles,” he said. “That’s not always the case. To change things, I knew Homeless Art Scotland had to be audacious in its approach and do something that had never been done before.”

READ MORE: Glasgow is ‘failing the homeless’

For the last eight months, Mr McCaig and his partner Ashley Cameron, together with Nicole, have been working round the clock with him to get Homeless Art Scotland off the ground. Mr Doris has been helping the trio to open doors for the project to ensure they can work with established groups in the sector.

Mr Doris said: “I am looking forward to hosting an event in the Scottish Parliament on February 26, at which fellow MSPs and parliamentary staff can see the work Robert has been producing and hear from him first-hand about his vision of using art to both support and empower those experiencing homelessness. The concept of delivering a new homeless support unit, funded and planned by those with lived experience of homelessness is a powerful one. After the launch of Homeless Art Scotland last week, I spoke to Jim McBride, who leads on homelessness with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership. He said he would like to meet Homeless Art Scotland soon to discuss opportunities.”

“The Partnership is launching a homelessness hub in the next few weeks at which they will meet people affected by homelessness and direct them to services. They are very keen to meet with Robert, Ashley and Nicole to discuss ways of engaging and to see how they could work together with others in the sector.”

As well as lobbying politicians by email to engage their support and writing mails to the 500 best-performing companies in Scotland looking for sponsorship, Mr McCaig put in hundreds of hours following up each email with a phone call.

He may have faced closed doors along the way but his idea has been actively supported by companies such as Avant Homes, Gallus Property, Miller Homes, Tunnocks and Arnold Clark. Glasgow-based printing firm, Deadly Digital, also stepped in to help print Mr McCaig’s work to a high specification.

Mr McCaig says he is documenting the creation of Homeless Art Scotland from start to finish so others can use it as a template. “You could use this model with fashion and music and other art forms. Once a project has momentum behind it, including support from officialdom, business and the public, then people want to feel part of it.”

For more about Homeless Art Scotland, see: http://www.homelessart.co.uk