They may have very different styles and interests, but painters Simon Laurie and Drysdale Scott do have one thing in common.

Both were in the same year at Glasgow School of Art (GSA), graduating in 1987 from a painting department cohort which had Barbara Rae as a tutor. In fact they shared a studio throughout their time at GSA.

Their artistic paths have diverged since then – Scott’s work is figurative and representative, Laurie’s approach avowedly abstract – but they come together this weekend for a joint show at The Lemond Gallery in Glasgow.

Scott, who spent nearly 30 years as an art teacher before taking early retirement in 2019 to concentrate on painting, will exhibit a series of mostly new works showcasing his narratively-rich still lifes and, in particular, his studies of dancers. Tango is a big favourite of his, as shown in paintings such as Tango In Red And Green and Tango On The Spot.

“I’m a real fan of film noir imagery,” he says, addressing the look of the moodily-lit works and the sense of drama contained within them. “I’m also a huge fan of the work of Caravaggio and Velázquez, and the great English painter Joseph Wright of Derby.”

Caravaggio was one of the greatest exponents of the chiaroscuro technique, which emphasises the contrast between light and dark in a painting. Joseph Wright of Derby – his actual working name – was an 18th century painter and chief proponent of what’s known as tenebrism. Think chiaroscuro on steroids.

In fact to Scott’s mind you can draw a direct line joining the painters of the 16th and 17th centuries who mastered the use of light with the famous film noir cinematographers of the mid-20th century – John F Seitz, for example, who shot several Billy Wilder films, including the classic Double Indemnity.

Which theory neatly ties together his two main founts of inspiration. “That sense of drama and eeriness in a lot of these paintings is something I find quite electric,” he admits. “Combining that with the film noir imagery and taking my inspiration from those sorts of movies, is something I’ve always been really interested in.”

Winter Twigs on Blue by Simon Laurie (Image: Supplied)

But how do you pose a couple of tango dancers long enough to execute a work in oil, a notoriously difficult medium? Answer: you don’t. Instead Scott prefers to work from specially-commissioned photographic studio portraits of tango dancers in action: a freeze-frame image displaying poise and control but also tension and that all important drama.

“I don’t believe in capturing movement, or a blur,” he says. “That’s not what I’m about. I’m about sharpness, I’m about definition, about capturing a moment in time.

“The traditions I’m trying to follow are of the great masters, particularly the great Baroque masters. It’s not photo-realism, I’m not trying to do that … it’s pin-point. And in doing ballet or tango I’ve decided there aren’t going to be many wispy blurs, it’s going to be sharply focused. That’s something I pride myself on.”

Cut to Simon Laurie, Scott’s old studio colleague from art school days. He is known for paintings whose titles suggest landscapes but whose composition is formed largely from abstract shapes. “The titles are only a lead in,” he says. “They’re not important to me. They’re a lead in for the viewer, just to give them a clue.”

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