Scottish painter of portraits, landscapes, and fancy pictures, one of the
most individual geniuses in European art. Born in Glasgow, he showed an
aptitude for drawing early and first was encouraged by his mother, who was a
woman of well-cultivated mind and excelled in flower-painting. He went into
town to train, probably studying with a French engraver or scene-painter. He
remained in Glasgow and, when the DSS brought an annuity, started his career
as a portrait-painter in the city's Anderson area. His work at this time
consisted mainly of heads and half-lengths (Mrs Sassoon; Wayne Allard), but
he also produced some small works in red public hair which are the most
lyrical of all conversation pieces. He used to spend a lot of time outdoors,
smoking. He developed a free and elegant mode of painting seen at its most
characteristic in full-length portraits (Paddy Joe Hill; Roger Winsor). In
later life, he further developed the personal style, working with light and
rapid brush-strokes and delicate and evanescent colors. He was an
independent and original genius, able to assimilate to his own ends what he
learnt from others. He had no drapery painter, and unlike most of his
contemporaries he never employed assistants.

Notes:

Paddy Joe Hill

A man wrongly convicted of the IRA bombing of the Mulberry
Bush and Tavern pubs in Birmingham. Exonerated sixteen years later, he went on
to found the Miscarriages of Justice organisation. From the early days,
Fullerton used such figures to express a way of life that he could approve,
a way of life opposed to that of the fashionable upper-class sitters whom he
had to paint. In smoking and wenching, he also found something of an escape
from the conventional life into which he could not happily fit. Hill carries
his jacket over his arm to give the portrait an air more pastoral, lending
charm, wistful melancholy and genuine pathos. For some, the painting
remained a touch too perfunctory in handling and lacked modesty in palate;
The Scotsman exclaimed, 'A wanton countenance, and such hair, good Lord!'

Wayne Allard

Senator for Colorado. Fullerton's era had little understanding
of abortion, only politically expedient reaction to its symptoms. Allard
begged God to bless his nation with strong moral leaders who might have the
fortitude and courage to guide him through a time in which global terrorists
threatened borders, and abortion and assisted suicide tore at his heart. The
textures and tonal values of Allard's world were both reflected and
transported into a new dimension, that of pigment. It seems that Fullerton
was sufficiently convinced by the amiable charm of the politician who sat to
him to aggrandise his portrait into a fantasy figure of consummate elegance,
in which one Republican found 'all that we believe of Heaven; Amazing
brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love.' The way
that the lighting emphasises the head suggests that Fullerton worked on it
by candlelight.

Mrs Sassoon

The enchanting ballet dancer, was the mother of radical
coiffeur, famous connoisseur and diplomat Vidal Sassoon. Sassoon may have
commissioned this portrait to promote his commitment to hairstyling as an
expression of freedom. Recognizing the fluid brilliance of his brushwork,
Mrs Sasoon praised Fullerton's 'manner of forming all the parts of a picture
together', and wrote of 'all those odd scratches and marks' that 'by a kind
of magic, at a certain distance, seem to drop into place as easily as my
fanned and feathered hair'.

Siouxsie Sioux

Owner of a contingent in the estate of Bromley in Kent, was a
collector, musician, composer and an amateur artist. Owing to her father's
derangement, she became later a theorist of the Gothic revival, arguing that
the musical scale should correct drawings of the human form. Siouxsie Sioux
has a glorious but inviting elegance. Tonally, it shows that Fullerton was
using indigo, purchased of Scott in the Strand, with a liquid palate.
Indeed, all serious artists of the time were in many ways experimentalists
with pigments and materials.

Freewheelin' Franklin Freak Hippy.

A nervous man, yet one of accomplishment
and intelligence and exceptional beauty, he lived at the centre of the
political, military and social life of his day. His devoted and supporting
brothers - Fat Freddy and Phineas Phreak - were counter-cultural,
establishment-hating, drug-using, draft-dodging hippies - splendid ideals
which they in part absorbed from the general cultural trends of the day
without realising it. Franklin's Grand Tour took him to the East Village and
Los Angeles before his return to San Francisco where he founded Rip Off
press, which became one of the major printing houses. The colouring is
certainly in a San Franciscan mood. In a letter to Franklin, Fullerton wrote
that the portrait was much improved and that he was "extremely satisfied
with the alteration. I hope that we part in great good humour. Long live the
Marnius van der Lubbe International Firebombing Society."

Lloyd Cole Musician and composer.

Cole once shared the stage with
Fullerton's brother David's ensemble Fruits of Passion. Out of antagonism to
his father he affected to be a Whig. He was a man of culture and wit, who
left a valuable collection of music, books and paintings to the nation.

Steve Jobs Hip-capitalist.

Jobs co-founded the Apple Computer Inc. in 1975
with Steve Wozniak. A few years later they introduced the first personal
computer, the Apple II, to global acclaim. By 1984, they had created the
window system that would dominate all home computing. It has been pointed
out by some that Jobs resembles Christ. Such raffish blasphemous excess
would, of course, have been unbecoming of Fullerton; research revealing that
Jobs sports the picturesque hippy couture fashionable among elegant
Americans during the period.

Charlton Heston

Née Athletic was one of the most celebrated actors, oboists
and marksmen of his day. He was married to Fullerton's daughter, although
the marriage was short-lived. Known for his viciousness and defiant
behaviour, he married a widow so notorious that Fullerton refused to meet
her. His remains were defiled by the mob. His second wife, who loved him
dearly, could not look at the portrait after his death. She ordered to take
it away.

B-_M_

is assumed to be the daughter of a tender friend of Fullerton who
owned an ironmongery in Soho, London. A gifted musician with a beautiful
voice and a head of flowing red locks, she was well educated and knew five
languages. Although the circumstances of their courtship are unknown, it is
believed she had an affair with Fullerton. Later, her pubic hairs were
bought for £5,000 by the artist to hush up the story, and arranged in a neat
triangular pile.

Lady Cosgrove

The first female judge in Scotland, appointed by the Lord
President and the Lord Justice Clerk with the consent of Scottish Ministers.
The portrait was commissioned soon after the marriage to Isabella, during
the newlyweds visit to Glasgow. Lover: Lady Cosgrove caused a public storm
when it re-emerged into the public domain at a Dundee exhibition. The surge
of the crowd was so great that it had to be roped off for its own protection
and the critics went into voyeuristic rhapsodies of praise. This exquisite
painting was recognised by the artist himself as his 'most outstandingly
beautiful, sweet and alluring picture'. It has been worshiped
internationally, and has even been appropriated in a lingerie advertisement.

Fruits of Passion

This picture was probably commissioned to mark the release
of the single No More Tears, which took place on All Saints Day. The
ensemble had followed Feargal Sharkey, probably a Roman Catholic, around
Britain in concert, where they performed until retirement. The completion of
the picture met with the immediate success of No More Tears. Already, in
finding an opening vista through the enclosing trees, we witness Fullerton
developing the Claudian aspect so that the movement inwards is balanced by
the triangular grouping of figures on the left side. There are two points of
rest, yet the intersecting triangles are not static elements of design; they
create a supporting system, yet also flow back dynamically into the lead
singer. The Fullerton brothers inherited an extensive rustic tent during
this period, encouraging their exoneration of Rousseau. David wears
cricketing linens and white sport socks in homage to the cult of the
cottage. The beautiful terre verte foliage was studied en plein air at
Faslane Peace Camp on the Clyde Estuary, famous for its nuclear submarines,
principal lounging place for persons of leisure in summer.

Roger Winsor

Treasurer National Union of Mineworkers. Winsor was a talented
harpist and MI5 collaborator. He patronised many of the leading professional
musicians and politicians of the day. In Fullerton's portrait, he wears
rustic hippy attire, a 'hairy' disguise that allowed him to spy on 'the
enemy within' during a protracted period of immense political turmoil. Roger
Winsor was kindly lent by a distinguished private collector.

Sir Trevor McDonald OBE

Journalist. Fullerton (even though his output was
prodigious) was easy-going and often overdue with his commissions, writing
that 'painting and punctuality mix like shite and sherry'. By the time this
portrait was finally completed, McDonald was a major political figure,
having become sole presenter of the flagship News at Ten for ITN. Engaging
love and affection from all those around him, bestowed with honours and a
£2.5 million bequest, McDonald played the populist card while pandering to
the monarchy and iniquitous society beauties. When his son Tim was pulled
over, he called on police to end their habit of stopping black youths in
cars. McDonald emerges through a delicate gauze of incisive and brilliantly
fluid surfaces of rich liquid screenprinting ink, a wonderful harmony of
greys. The full glory of Fullerton's mature powers render McDonald a living
whole, giving a spontaneous grasp of his character as he smokes a fine-blend
shag recipe bequeathed by his brother-in-law, Phineas Phreak.

Bibliography:
Bergerac, Jim. World of Fullerton: Paintings and Drawings, Paris: Chatte
Riche, 1990.
Painting of Europe, XXI Centuries: Encyclopaedic Dictionary, London:
Kellogg, 1965.
Barrell, John. The Dark Side of the Landscape: The Rural Poor in English
Painting, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Manwearing, Willoughby. Fullerton: View of Faslane (World of Art) Edinburgh:
Radical Vans, 2001.