Book review: ‘Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer’

Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer
Tony Davidson
Woodwose Books

SPRINKLED with anecdotes of a life in the north, art dealer Tony Davidson paints a portrait of his colourful existence with local artists. He gives the reader an equal sense of times past and a true love for the creative community that he hosted at his art gallery outside Inverness.

Perhaps an ode to the bohemian life, the author gives the eccentric characters of the art world a place to breathe on the pages of his debut book. Letting us get to know artists, both well-known and lesser mentioned, this is not just a book with human interest, as we equally get to greet the Scottish nature as a long-lost friend, reintroduced with descriptions of the picturesque glens and lochs of the area.

Not just playing with the colours of the past in his literary brush strokes, he also shares with the reader the journey he has been on while re-purposing a remote and redundant 18th century church into the contemporary Kilmorack Gallery that we know and love today. Describing the struggles and victorious moments of owning a fixer-upper and a business, Davidson also provokes the reader to think about global changes and challenges we face in our society.

A good read for the art lover, it is equally a book that will tickle the fancy of anyone who loves the Highlands and the lives of its people. Whether you have been bitten already by the art bug or not, the confessions of this art dealer will sink its teeth into your mind with original writing and a unique voice.

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