James Watt @thebeaconarts

You can't escape the name James Watt in Greenock. There's the James Watt Dock, James Watt College, a James Watt pub, numerous streets named after James Watt...
Its safe to say the Greenock-born inventor of the modern steam engine is well remembered in his home town.
Tonight I headed down to the new Beacon Arts Centre at Customhouse Quay in Greenock for the preview of The Clyde - An Artist's River.
This exhibition of more than 70 paintings by Port Glasgow born painter James (or Jimmy as he's more commonly known) Watt is in exactly the right place.
Jimmy is primarily a maritime artist and most of the work on show here is in a large natural light-filed space overlooking the River Clyde.
The room itself is like a giant picture of the river, with yachts, tugs and various vessels passing by outside.
Jimmy is a charming man and a prolific artist. The river is in his blood and he knows it inside out.
It's quite overwhelming to see these paintings which are all informed by the Clyde and boats, and date back to the 1960s, in one very fitting place.
Jimmy spent a large part of the night signing copies of a new book published to coincide with the opening of the exhibition.
I was struck by how beautiful his handwriting was and this picture shows the inscription he made for one of his former pupils at St Columba's High in Greenock, Karen Orr.
Karen went on to study at Jimmy's old art school, the Glasgow School of Art, and is now an artist as well as being head of arts at RIG Arts in Greenock.
Some of you might have seen the James Watt Education Initiative on Blipfoto
Jimmy took part in several workshops with 12 primary and secondary schools in the last few weeks and spoke movingly about how he had been humbled by the response of the kids studying his work.
As if to reiterate the Blip mantra, he told the assembled crowd that 'it's all about the difference between looking and seeing.'