John Busby 'In Celebration' Nature in Art

This brief video was made in 2020 to mark the 5th anniversary of JOHN BUSBY's death. It is a celebration of his work and features images of him out in the field sketching and finishes with a picture of him as a young man at the easel painting one of his larger canvases.
In 2015 Nature in Art had the pleasure of working with John on a special retrospective exhibition of his work, embracing not just his paintings and drawings of birds and animals, but his large oil paintings exploring patterns in nature, birds-eye views of the landscape and rocks studied through a microscope. Tragically between making all the arrangements and the start of the exhibition John died, so he was never able to see the final result that delighted our visitors. Continuing the long association between John and Nature in Art, we currently have a large oil painting (‘Crane Dance’ (2000)) by John on long term loan.
John taught at Edinburgh College of Art from 1956 – 1988 and in 1989 he began a seabird drawing course based at North Berwick which has continued each year since. He was a founding member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (1960), President of the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) 1976-79, and was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) and to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA). He was involved with the Artists for Nature Foundation since its inception in 1991 and was elected Master Wildlife Artist in the USA (2009), one of the few British artists awarded the honour (others included Sir Peter Scott and Keith Shackleton).
Landscape, and particularly the abstract geometry of landscape, was always the main focus of his work, but meeting the renowned artist Eric Ennion (1900 – 1981) in the 1950s turned his bird watching hobby into what became a major part of his artistic output.
John worked in traditional media: watercolours, pastels on paper and oil on canvas. In the field he first used a sketchbook, adding watercolour if time and location allowed. He liked to stay with a subject watching all aspects of behaviour and interaction. In the studio he then developed the gathered material into the final works.
Had he lived John would have been 93 in February 2021. His legacy lives on and is celebrated by many nature inspired artists who recognise him as an inspiring mentor and one of the most influential nature artists of the twentieth century.

www.johnbusbyartist.co.uk
www.natureinart.org.uk