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Distinguished Scottish painter John Houston was born in Fife in 1930. A talented footballer, he represented Scotland under-21s against England and played for Dundee United whilst at art school, but footballs loss was arts gain when a knee injury cut short his career and left him free to focus wholly on painting. He trained at Edinburgh College of Art, and went on to teach there, ending up as Deputy Head of the School of Painting and Drawing. It was at Edinburgh that he met Elizabeth Blackadder, a fellow student who was to become, in 1956, his wife. He was a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours, and a Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute and in 1990 was awarded an OBE.
His work was described by William Packer as, “…characteristic of modern Scottish painting, direct in the statement, rich in colour and the actual stuff of the paint as it rests on the surface. It is a natural, sensual, almost hedonistic expressionism, yet it is in no sense indulgent…”