Born in 1978, Saul Robertson studied drawing and painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art between 1996 and 2000. He has won numerous awards including: Young Artist of the Year at the Royal College of Art; The City of Glasgow Prize, The David Cargill Award and The Scottish Portrait Award. In 2005 he won second prize at the B.P Portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Saul was elected as a member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 2022, and as a member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts in 2023. He currently lives and works just outside Glasgow.
Saul's work typically focuses on land, beachscapes and figures capturing fleeting moments of light, colour, and mood. His work often depict idylls of sorts, drawing upon his love of the pastoral tradition in European art exemplified by Bellini and Watteau, as well as the Beatnnik/road trip fiction he read in his youth.
'The places depicted are imaginary but based (sometimes unconsciously at the time of painting) on memories of time spent in a variety of places near and far, both recently and long ago....fragments which are adapted and combined into an imaginary painted world. My paintings often depict idylls of sorts .... peaceful, quiet places. That which can be fleeting and hard to find in the course of everyday life becomes, in some senses, permanent and enduring when painted.'
Saul's style combines a strong sense of realism with a poetic and atmospheric quality and his paintings evoke a sense of calm and contemplation, drawing viewers into the worlds he creates. He works across a range of mediums, using watercolour to achieve delicate yet expressive compositions, while oils allow him to build depth and luminosity, giving his paintings a distinctive, almost timeless quality. No matter the medium, his work is rich in storytelling, capturing moments that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.
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