ONE of Scotland's most popular artists, John Lowrie Morrison, known as Jolomo, is unveiling his first major retrospective in a show he hopes might have critics re-evaluating his years of painting.
Jolomo's show tomorrow at the Clydebank Town Hall Museum and Gallery, titled A Passion for Colour, features more than 150 works by the painter, which focus not only on his popular landscape paintings but also less well-known figurative and textile design works.
Despite his success, with an annual turnover said to be around £2 million, Jolomo's work have not found great critical favour over the years.
The scale and size of the exhibition, which the painter believes brings together the best of his work from more than 40 years, may lead critics to reconsider their stance, he said.
"You know I am not particularly interested in that, I will get over it, but I think if it does bring them to look at my work again, that would be great," he said.
"More than anything else, there is the sheer body of work involved."
Jolomo used to work as an art adviser to Strathclyde Regional Council, a post which prompted him to accept West Dunbartonshire Council's invitation to hold his retrospective in the Clydebank Town Hall museum and gallery.
The free exhibition, which will be visited by Fiona Hyslop, the Culture Secretary today, will run until September.
The artist said: "This retrospective is my first and only show of its kind. It really is an honour to have one, usually to hold a retrospective you have to be dead - it seems a long time since I first displayed my paintings in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens in the late 1960s.
"I will paint till I drop but yes, this is a kind of marking post for me. What I cannot believe is the similarities between the work I did when I was four to the work I do now, it all connects in some way."
Jolomo was born in 1948 in Maryhill, Glasgow, and studied at Glasgow School of Art.
For more than 25 years he worked in art education, becoming principal teacher of art at Lochgilphead High School and then as art adviser at Strathclyde Region.
Giving up his teaching career to paint full time in 1997, Jolomo has become a highly successful artist.
In 2005, he established The Jolomo Foundation.
The Jolomo Awards for Scottish landscape painting were launched in 2006 and have been awarded in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
He added: "I really do hope visitors will find the exhibition interesting and I think some people might be surprised by the wide range of genres and media used in some of my work which is exhibited chronologically stretching from when I was four right up to date.
"There are, of course, my iconic landscapes but also on view is figurative, religious, still life, textile design, sketching and drawing work.
As well as landscapes of places such as Grogport, an Argyll hamlet that Jolomo has painted many times, there are figurative works and work from his degree show.
There is also less familiar works including the portraits of Archie, a retired gamekeeper whom Jolomo befriended in Argyll in the 1970s.
Ms Hyslop said: "I expect the many visitors who come to Clydebank to see for themselves leave inspired by his diversity, his creative talent and an appreciation of why Jolomo is one of Scotland's best-loved artists."
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