Born in 1949 Sam Skelton grew up in the industrial town of Kirkintilloch. His father was a worker at the local foundry and his memories of the scenes around the foundry influenced his art work and fill his paintings.
Sam Skelton studied Graphic Design at theGlasgow School of Art and worked as a graphic designer before deciding to paint full time.
Sam Skelton’s paintings are nostalgic evocations of Scotland’s industrial past: working class heroes, boxers, a couple on a park bench, a group of men in dark overcoats watching a game of football played on waste ground.
The stark simplicity of Sam Skelton’s figures, painted on rough Hessian, belie a rich heritage. These are the kids playing on the street so familiar from the paintings of Joan Eardley or the photographs of Oscar Marzaroli. The influence of the great industrial naïve painter, J.S. Lowry is clear. Skelton’s paintings are suffused with the dark low light of Scotland in winter.
