Stuart Herd
Stuart Herd, Lived and working as Landscape and Rugby artist in Argyll Scotland. Depicting a variety of the vast Scottish Landscapes. Other compositions of his Artwork explored the extremes of weather and the mood that attribute to all seasons in Scotland. Stuart was born in Scotland in February 1971, but grew up in the South of England. He started off his career in Photography. His photography work varied from studio and commercial photography as well as press and lab works around the UK. Whilst always regularly traveling back to Scotland to capture and explore the diverse Scottish landscapes, His career in Photography strengthened his work with the ability to always find the perfect angle for his paintings.
SETTING UP ROOTS:
In the early 2000’s Stuart Herd once again found his way back to Scotland, this time to Tarbert, Argyll a little fishing village on the West Coast of Scotland. Argyll a place Stuart knew well as his Grandparents were from the local area. This is where he set up roots. Stuart’s artwork took precedence, Exhibiting in Argyll galleries whilst working as a Picture Framer. And within a few years he was working full time on his paintings and Due to his growing popularity, he felt he needed his own space for people to meet him and view his artwork. In 2007 he opened The Art Studio in Tarbert to the public. Where he saw his work become increasingly sought after by buyers in the UK and Worldwide.
During the Mid-90s whilst living in Edinburgh producing highly detailed pen and ink stadium drawings and cityscapes , displaying his work in different galleries, this is where his professional art career had taken off.
After traveling Abroad and working in Jamaica for a few years, a year of which was spent as an art Auctioneer he then stayed on the island and worked earning a living as a picture framer and also painting and drawing where he gained acclaim for his highly detailed pen and ink exhibitions by the public and critics alike.
he would described the trips as 'character building' during this time.
Stuart and his dog Sketch working hard in the Studio
" I'll sit and sketch if I have the time but the majority of my work is done from photographs in the studio, but for me that's part of the process. You look for an angle, and you work from that. You use the camera to capture that angle."
A GALLERY IS BORN:
In 2011, Stuart suffered a major injury to his eye after moving into his family home. After a year of failed surgeries the decision was then taken to remove his eye, He would then go on to wear a fake eye. It was during his hospital stays that he decided he needed a backup plan and this is where The Harbour Gallery Tarbert was born. Opening its doors in March 2012. Just shy of three years later however in February 2015 Stuart whilst on a family holiday came across the picturesque port village of Ullapool and quickly fell in love with the town, and with a quick turn around the doors to The Harbour Gallery Ullapool were open in April 2015. Six years later and a little closer to home, as Scotland was coming out of Lockdown, Stuart opened up his third gallery The Harbour Gallery Inveraray in April 2021. With all three galleries Stuart covered a wide area of Scotland often keeping each of his galleries to the area and the surrounding area that they are situated in. Frequently taking painting trips with his camera in hand searching for new inspirations.
And before long it was getting very crowded within the studio as he was fighting for space between framing and painting, so he decided to open up a separate framing shop and keep his studio solely for painting, and in July 2022 Stuart opened up his framing shop, The Picture Framer which is conveniently situated next door to The Harbour Gallery Tarbert with his son Robbie who runs the shop.
"Stuart can take an old boat left to rot on the shore, a shabby shelter on a seafront or an old phone box and turn it into a thing of beauty."
Oban Times, 2019
RUGBY:
Stuart’s love for Rugby started from a young age, where he played for His Local rugby club, His rugby playing days were cut short however when he broke his leg in a car accident at the age of 17. But Stuart’s love for the game never faded and would frequently be seen as a spectator at 'Five & Six Nations' games spent in a blue shirt surrounded by a sea of white shirts in pubs 'down south'. The passion for the game has also been passed down to his son Robbie who was frequently taken to Rugby games and trips with his parents, and also plays Rugby for his local rugby club.
. Stuart taste for painting Rugby artwork started as he briefly dabbled in Rugby artwork and painted four small study originals of Scotland against England, Ireland, Wales and Italy, as well as larger originals of Scotland V England at Twickenham from 2017. His Rugby Artwork career fully took off however in February 2021 after Scotland’s victory against England in the 2021 Calcutta cup at Twickenham ‘The Last scrum before the try’ Inspired the start of his Limited Edition Rugby prints portfolio quickly gaining success throughout the rugby community worldwide.
Stuart at BT Murrayfield for the 150th Anniversary of the 1872 Cup for Edinburgh against Glasgow in December 2022.
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His palette is an old plate - A jumble of colour to the untrained eye. Then the magic happens!
Which then led to him traveling to games and being invited by various rugby establishments to take pictures of the games in action for commission’s as well. In April 2023 Stuart travelled to Cardiff for the Women’s Welsh Six Nations game against England for a commissioned painting by Vodafone for the welsh Rugby Union.
Stuart at Cardiff Arms Park, for the Six Nations Women's Welsh Rugby game against England in April 2023.
Rugby World Cup 2023
Stuart had been planning his trip to France for two years since it had been announced and then was delay due to Covid-19. He set up a blog dedicated to showing himself gearing up for the travel to France as well as showing his new limited edition print series out of 223 prints (to reflect the year the world cup took place) with a different print of all 20 countries that took part in the competition, with all of the dates and information assigned to each team by their poll’s in French. Stuart was inspired by an old French travel poster this was very much supposed to be a teaser of the artwork that was to come once he returned, but sadly on the 2nd October 2023 Stuart Herd passed away whilst over in France.
