Kirkcaldy artist joins adult colouring craze with own book

Kirkcaldy artist John Gifford has produced his own colouring book of his paintings

The popular painter, who is particularly well known for his paintings of local scenes, has taught his beloved subject to hundreds of art enthusiasts in the Lang Toun over the years.

Now he has published a colouring in book with a difference, as it contains 25 full colour images of John’s landscape

paintings alongside black and white sketches of the scene, so that the paintings can be used as a guide to help colour them in.

John (68), of the town’s Bennochy Avenue, said: “Colouring books are a popular way to help people de-stress, as well as trying to do something away from computer screens. Everywhere you go, you see them in the shops but they are all psychedelic patterns, which not everyone likes.

“I run weekly art classes and one of my students said I should do one of my own with my paintings, and I thought this was a good idea.

“The ones I have included in the book are all traditional landscapes from around the UK, and the originals are there if people wish to use them as a guide, or they can give them their own interpretation, if they prefer.”

The book is on sale from this week on Amazon and from John’s website, and he is also hoping it will be stocked in book stores in the town, as well as Rejects department store in St Clair Street, in the near future.

John, who has been a full-time artist for the last 20 years and teaches art classes on P&O cruise ships, is also planning to start up a new series of art classes for beginners this summer,

Details will be available soon on his website: www.johngifford.co.uk.