The shock of the new

1. This is a close up of an original picture that hangs in my mum's living room. She has two of them, similar in style, possibly a pair. Isn't it cool?

2. The artist is Stewart McFadzean, or Stuart ? I don't know, let's call him Mr McFadzean. For as long as I can remember these pictures have been in my home living room. I must have looked at them thousands of times. I remember them framed and mounted in the 70's, 80's, 90's and now. I have gazed at them, studied them, ignored them and loved them.

3. Mr McFadzean was a colleague of my parents. Head of Art in a west coast, end of the line town not known for artistic flair. In my day he led a department of three. The other two were Mr Jack and the flame haired, Bowie mad, Mrs Hughes. As a department they had everything you could wish for your art teachers.

4. I took to Mr McFadzean though. I did my higher with him, a lone figure in a room of dafties. I learned a staggering amount in that room ? stuff I have never forgotten. Half way through the year he gave me a box of his own paints. Just gave them, to me. I was shocked and delighted in equal measure.

5. At the end of the year I won the art prize. It was called the Bert Richard Prize. Bert Richard was the previous head of art, a friend of my parents who died young. The prize was The Shock of the New; a book I use to this day and love with all my heart. Nothing compares to those paints though. They are in the drawer next to my bed. A cherished gift given by someone who believed in me, who cared about my future. He gave me something old, something borrowed. New.