Peter Howson’s latest work – from start to finish

Internationally-acclaimed Scottish artist Peter Howson’s creative process is placed centre stage in a fascinating insight into how a painter creates a major artwork from scratch.

Howson, a former official British war artist, has famously battled his own demons in the past but in Prophecy, a new film being shown on BBC Scotland on Sunday, December 8, he talks about drawing inspiration from world unrest, religious beliefs and mythology, employing classical techniques used by his painting heroes; Goya, DaVinci, Bruegel and El Greco.

As he puts it: ‘Creating is an incredible journey that can open the door to a new universe.’

An intimate exploration of a single oil painting and the first major documentary to reveal the motive and techniques behind each stroke of paint as the artist creates it, viewers are plunged into the artist’s darkly comic obsessive mind.

Starting with a blank canvas, Howson’s monumental oil painting, Prophecy, slowly emerges. As Howson explains, he has painted over work he was unhappy with in the past, and this prospect hangs over his new painting at every turn.

Peter Howson putting the finishing touches to his painting, Prophecy (Photo: Itch Film)

Starting at the point at which the canvas is stretched using a centuries-old method, we watch the struggle and turbulence of its creation in Howson’s Glasgow studio.

His grown-up daughter Lucy, whom he says paints into every work he creates, appears in his studio for a visit and the both talk about how the father/daughter relationship is important to them.

We follow Prophecy’s journey through the commercial art world, across the Atlantic to New York for its first public exhibition in a high-end New York private gallery.

Following the sale Prophecy, a monumental painting in terms of its size and subject-matter, we track it to its final destination on the wall of a private art collector in London’s Canary Wharf.

Prophecy will be shown on Sunday, 8 December, on BBC Scotland from 9-10.20pm.

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