David Armour: a life in art

The first thing to say is that I'm not the person who should be writing this: I'm his son, and no artist. However, it's down to me ...

My Dad's being in Edinburgh Art College in 1950 under the tutelage of Gillies, McTaggart, Redpath and Philipson makes him one of the later members of the Edinburgh School, and his bold and colourful style fits too. His paintings are not light and fluffy though: his tones can sometimes be sombre and his lines thick and heavy, and his figures and faces almost square: I remember hearing someone refer to them as "Davie Armour's blockheads" (I think my aunt's friend Frances Walker). This is very clear in the ink drawing of the hunter, and also in the farm worker and the bandura players.

He painted confidently in oil, if prone to occasional whimsy - for example the bright and breezy Ship Inn is completely recognisable, but has been given two extra windows. His still lifes are striking: I grew up with the two big paintings of jugs with lemon, and jugs on table, both of which I love, although the latter has quite a sombre palette. The small painting of the Japanese vase only reappeared when clearing the house after his death, like the drawing of the hunter.

He loved working with wood - his fishing rods are glowing examples of the finesse of split cane work: it caused him enormous pain when a couple snapped in action, and a yew bow he made also suffered a similar fate. His other work was precise too and thankfully more robust - after sixty years there are no gaps or splits in his marquetry or inlays.

In the latter half of the 1960s through to the 1990s he crafted a lot of pottery: beautifully made and skillfully glazed. He was fascinated by the chemistry of firing, using reduction and raku firing a lot; kept a recipe book of glazes, and was always keen to learn techniques and tips from other potters. Although this came in mid-career, I have a vague notion that he visited Bernard Leach in St Ives in 1963 on what, for me, was our first family holiday.

He was a driving force behind the West Lothian Art Teachers' Exhibitions of the 1970s, where up to fifty teachers were members and exhibited works around the county, often in the Burgh Halls in Linlithgow. As an artist, teacher and motivator in a school in a deprived area he knew the benefit of art in education and the uplift and sense of fulfilment it could bring even to weaker students and he created a uniquely varied and successful facility in Blackburn Academy to that end.

Above all he was an enthusiast, in everything he did. And everything he did, he did astonishingly well.