A CHANCE meeting between Inverclyde Provost Michael McCormick and the Beechgrove Garden’s Walter Gilmour has led to a new piece of artwork at the council’s headquarters.

Both men professed an interest in art -- Provost McCormick is a keen photographer and a former member of a local art club, and, for the past seven years, TV gardener Walter has been taking art lessons from Glasgow School of Art-trained artist Ted Marle, who divides his time between tutoring at East Kilbride arts centre and preparing for exhibitions.

Walter said: “About a month later I was chatting to Ted and he told me he had been looking for an appropriate home for a painting of the Waverley while she was in dry dock in Greenock. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss.”

The painting now hangs above the Grand Staircase in Greenock Municipal Buildings.

Ted said: “The Waverley had only been in the dock for a week or two when I came down, and so I spent hours and hours sketching and taking photographs. The painting is really my homage to the artist Sir Stanley Spencer who affected me for much of my life and I can’t think of a more appropriate location for people to enjoy it.”

The artist asked his council Provost Russell Clearie, of South Lanarkshire, to perform the official handover, which took place on Wednesday. Provost Clearie said: “I worked for 42 years in the steel industry so was down here on a regular basis. What better place for a piece of art so closely associated with Inverclyde than at the entrance to the Municipal Buildings?”

Provost McCormick added: “I am absolutely delighted to be presented with this painting on behalf of the people of Inverclyde. It has been a pleasure to meet my opposite number from South Lanarkshire for the first time and to be able to thank the artist in person for a wonderful painting that captures the spirit and the essence of shipbuilding on what is now considered to be one of the most beautiful rivers in Europe.”

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