"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality." - Edgar Degas
It is often said sketchbooks are the eye into the true souls of artists. Join Helen Bellany for an exclusive exploration of the sketchbooks of John Bellany giving insight into Bellany's artistic development and practice.
Helen Bellany was born in Golspie in Sutherland, in 1943 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965. It was there that she met John Bellany. They married in September 1964, divorced in 1979, before remarrying in 1986. They have three children; Jonathan, Paul and Anya. She is the author of The Restless Wave: My Two Lives with John Bellany published in 2018 by Sandstone Press.
The Bellany Sketchbooks