The Fred Yates of Ayrshire?

For more than twenty years, Alan Lees worked as a successful sculptor, mainly in wood and became well known as Scotland's foremost woodcarver.

When, some ten years ago, arthritis began to make his huge, trademark carvings increasingly difficult, he began to focus on unusual and colourful ‘naive’ artworks in acrylics, large and colourful paintings full of movement and activity, often depicting a wealth of figures in traditional settings. Some of his paintings have a period feel while others are wholly contemporary. Some involve a myriad of figures while others are vivid landscapes or cityscapes.

His work has been variously described in terms of Lowry, Fred Yates, Grandma Moses and even Breugel. Certainly, every picture from this ‘outsider artist’ tells an intriguing story. Alan works from his studio in a 200 year old Ayrshire cottage, open to visitors by appointment.

New for 2019 we are introducing a range of extraordinary hand painted folk art furniture. Most of these pieces are vintage or antique, well made original pieces that were badly in need of renovation and restoration, or were not particularly desirable in their own right. (We would never restore something precious!) But these are magical. We hope you like them as much as we do.