D&A student draws from the heart

If you go for a coffee in the Ashbrook Nursery on the outskirts of Arbroath, you might stop to look at some exquisite paintings of flowers and plants on display there.

You might even be tempted to buy one.

If you do slow down and take a closer look, you will be helping to mark a rite of passage for 68-year-old David McGregor.

“Throughout my working life as a stonemason, I had always had this nagging desire to be creative,” he said. "But it wasn’t until my wife, Heather, was nearing the end of her own life that she made me promise to follow my dreams and enrol in an art HND course at the college.

“I made that promise and here I am exhibiting for the first time.”

David’s finely painted work is not only a celebration of his love of art and plants but is a wonderful reminder of his wife.

He’s one of a group of second year HND students who’ve been tasked with finding different venues to display their work.

College lecturer, Oonagh Devoy, said: “It’s a big step forward for our students to begin exhibiting their work and David is a wonderful example of that.

"Our HND students are exhibiting as a group for the whole of March in the café at Stracathro Hospital, while individual students are finding other locations throughout the county.

"To get the support and appreciation of our local community is a huge boost to their confidence.”

For more information or inspiration on courses available at Dundee and Angus College visit the website at dundeeandangus.ac.uk.