Jack Vettriano, the Scottish painter who was often dismissed as kitsch and derivative but became one of Britain’s most successful artists has died. Often compared to Edward Hopper and Walter Sickert because of his subject matter, after his sudden breakthrough in 1988 he painted prolifically.
He was born into a mining village left school early and wandered for a few years career-wise before going to college and starting to paint without success in the early years. After his rise to prominence he was out selling Monet and Van Gogh and earning a reported £500,000 in annual royalties from reproductions of his paintings on postcards, posters, calendars and jigsaw puzzles.
He never made ‘claims for his art, pointing to the gritty themes of film noir, the bright colours of art deco railway posters and the garish drama of pulp fiction novel covers as his aesthetic inspiration.’
He was born 17 November 1951 Methil, Scotland, 9.30am, and had a 12th house intense Scorpio Sun square Pluto and sextile Mars in Virgo, so drawn to undercurrents of darkness and mystery in his paintings. He also had Saturn conjunct his Midheaven and Venus opposition Jupiter square an 8th house Cancer Moon; with Uranus also in the 8th square a 10th house Neptune.
He drew his inspiration from the depths with a strong 8th house and packed a punch in his subject matter, which seemed colourful on the surface, often light-hearted but carried undertones of unease.
His creative 5th and 7th harmonic charts were well aspected; as was his leaving-a-legacy-for-history 17H and his global renown 22H.
The post Jack Vettriano – a Scorpio talent for unease first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
