I started my working life as an apprentice gardener with Dundee Parks Department in 1959.
I had 5 years of training with day release classes and worked in different parks, nurseries and greenhouses. This was a time when flower power was at its peak. It was very important to show flower beds full of colourful bedding plants for both a spring and summer display. These were lessons that have stayed with me all my life. Dundee Parks created large flower beds along Nethergate. I was in the team that looked after these flower beds. I passed them one sunny day with camera in hand and took a few photos. I new then that I just had to capture this display on canvas, so out came one large canvas 48 x 30 inches and my oil paints. The composition included Dundee folk and students enjoying the sun but I needed a central figure as a focal point so I went along to the City Square and waited with camera in hand till some bonny lass passed by that was perfect for my painting. Of course not to frighten the young lady I took several images of the streets and buildings, and she just happened to be in one of them.
As time went on the council started to cut back on flowers and gardeners, so my painting captures a time past when Dundee had immense flower power, but now, sadly, all gone.
