Jings! Hen Vettriano is doing braw for himself

Picasso famously had his “blue period” and now it seems top Scots artist Jack Vettriano is going through a “Broon period”.

The world-famous painter exclusively revealed last week that his nickname is Hen Broon!

Not only that, but he stated his preference for The Sunday Post.

The Fife-born king of the canvas explained: “I’m seeing a girl from Dundee and she calls me Hen Broon a joke only two Scottish people would get, which I love.

“The first time I ever spent the night in a hotel room with a woman, the concierge asked me if I’d like a paper for the morning. I probably should have acted all sophisticated and said The Observer, but instead I asked for The Sunday Post!”

It’s the first of many tales about the fairer sex, which is only to be expected when looking at the artist’s work.

Jack is in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery launching a career retrospective. He admits he can’t quite believe it.

“I’ve tried hard to explain how I feel but nothing comes close to describing what it’s like to be in that room, surrounded by work I never thought I’d be capable of doing, work that’s pleased a huge number of people.”

But while the public loves the 61-year-old’s work, the same can’t be said for the art critics, who regularly savage it.

He doesn’t think this exhibition will change anything.

“It’s human nature. If you take a stance, it’s hard to remove yourself from that and I think a lot of them have dug a hole for themselves.

“I’m mildly hurt by it, but they must be chewing the carpet, wondering why they even talked about me and made me controversial when clearly I’m not.

“The establishment doesn’t like my work because it’s sexy and they don’t think that’s artistic. But that’s a lot of tosh.

“Anyway, I’m not painting for the critics, I’m painting for the public.”

Jack was brought up in a working-class home in Methil, Fife. His mum was a field worker until she married and his dad worked down the pits.

“I remember a school art teacher saying once: ‘That’s a good drawing’, and I wondered if I could go to art college. But you needed three O levels and there was no chance of me getting the other two.

“In my family, further education just wasn’t considered.

“I managed to get a job with the coal board as an engineer. It was a wonderful apprenticeship but unfortunately I couldn’t tell one end of a spanner from the other!”

He was 22 when a girlfriend gave him a set of paints.

Four years later, he held his first exhibition sort of.

“I went to the Middle East for a year to work. I took a set of oil paints and did 20 paintings of common British birds from a book I’d stolen from the library.

“I hung the paintings on my walls and invited friends round for drinks, but I didn’t say anything about them and they didn’t notice. It’s not like I said: ‘Will you give me 20 quid for this one?’

“But even then I could sense I had a certain facility.

“I kept on painting in sheds, outside toilets, back bedrooms, whatever space I could find but I knew I needed a subject.

“One day, I realised the subject had been in front of me my entire life. Women.”

He added: “The biggest thank you I have is for the people of Scotland. Without their support I wouldn’t be here.

“When my prints first came out, they bought them and had faith in me. Look at The Singing Butler. Why should it just be in one house when it can be in 10 million?

“That’s the way art should be.”

Jack Vettriano: A Retrospective runs until February 23 at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.