CLAN Cancer Support

This month will provide a unique opportunity for the public to see a Retrospective Exhibition of the work of Bob Batchelor, an artist and teacher well known by many in the North-East, not least by the many pupils he taught in Aberdeen for twenty years, as Principal Teacher of Art at the High School for Girls, which later became Harlaw Academy, until his retirement in 1986. He was an enthusiastic and inspirational teacher, and this exhibition will display the amazing variety that can be seen in his watercolours, oil paintings, drawings and screenprints, many of them inspired by his own garden, and all of them lent by their owners for this very special exhibition. Bob came to Scotland in 1946 from his home in Guyana, to study at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, and he taught in various Scottish schools before arriving to teach in Aberdeen, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was one of the first artists to work at Peacock Printmakers in its early days, and many of his riotously-coloured screenprints of flowers and gardens can be seen in the corridors and waiting areas of A.R.I., Woodend, Dr. Gray's Hospital in Elgin, and other North East hospitals. Since Bob's death in 2010, a group of his friends have been trying to find a venue for a retrospective exhibition of Bob's life's work, and they were delighted when they were offered, very generously, space for the exhibition in the beautiful CLAN House in Westburn Road, during the month when CLAN Cancer Support is celebrating its 30th Anniversary and marking three decades of providing free support services for all those affected by cancer in the community. The Exhibition is open to the public from 14th to 17th September, and the opening hours are as follows :- Saturday 14th 11am to 8pm Sunday 15th 11am to 8pm Monday 16th 2pm to 8pm Tuesday 17th 2pm to 6pm