Scottie Wilson

At the age of 44 he began doodling with one of the fountain pens that he collected for resale in his shop and discovered his passion for art. In his own words:

I’m listening to classical music one day – Mendelssohn – when all of a sudden I dipped the bulldog pen into a bottle of ink and started drawing – doodling I suppose you’d call it – on the cardboard tabletop. I don’t know why. I just did. In a couple of days – I worked almost ceaselessly – the whole of the tabletop was covered with little faces and designs. The pen seemed to make me draw, and them images, the faces and designs just flowed out. I couldn’t stop – I’ve never stopped since that day.[4]

It was there that he began his work, embodying a personal code of morality wherein characters called "evils and greedies" are juxtaposed with naturalistic symbols of goodness and truth. The first dealer to encounter Wilson’s work was a Canadian, Douglas Duncan, who displayed them in various gallery shows. While Wilson did not want to part with his drawings, he found the idea of an artistic career preferable to shopkeeping and attempted to solve the problem of raising money by staging travelling shows for viewing only and charging modest entrance fees or holding tray collections.

After receiving recognition for his work in Toronto, he abruptly went to London in 1945 and continued to exhibit his drawings for modest fees while maintaining a deep distrust of dealers. A few months after his arrival he was persuaded by dealers to show in galleries, and had a solo exhibition at the Arcade Gallery in London, shown concurrently with other works by such 20th-century artists as Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, amongst others. Wilson's rejection of commercialism was unabated, however, and he continued to sell his work on the street for a minute fraction of the prices the gallery owners were asking. He said of the working-class customers he attracted, "They're the intellect, you know".[5]

Royal Worcester dinnerware by Scottie Wilson

Wilson spent his remaining years in Kilburn, an area of northwest London, working alone in his small lodgings. In the early 1950s, he travelled to France at the persuasion of artist and outsider art fanatic Jean Dubuffet. There Wilson was met by not only Dubuffet, but also by Pablo Picasso; both were fans and owners of Wilson's work. According to art critic Bill Hopkins, a friend of Wilson who accompanied him on the trip:

When we arrived, not only was Dubuffet waiting, Pablo Picasso was with him. Both owned a few of Scottie’s pieces, and Picasso had come to see – and perhaps buy – some more. I vividly remember both artists eagerly admiring Scottie’s work, squabbling in their fierce, theatrical, Gallic voices over who would buy which piece.[4]

In the 1960s, Wilson began to create paintings on plates and was subsequently commissioned by Royal Worcester and had designed a series of dinnerware, which was produced until 1965. The pattern was based on totem poles and imagery from North America.[6] His picture ‘Bird Song’ was chosen as a design for the 1970 UNICEF Christmas Card. He died in 1972 from cancer. Though he always complained of poverty, Wilson was discovered at the time of his death to have secreted a suitcase full of money under his bed and large sums in various bank accounts.[1]