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Sister Rita portrait on display at Glasgow Art Club

Artist Gerard M Burns painted a portrait of Sister Rita Dawson MBE as part of his Mother Glasgow exhibit, on display now at the Glasgow Art Club <i>(Image: Newsquest)</i>
Artist Gerard M Burns painted a portrait of Sister Rita Dawson MBE as part of his Mother Glasgow exhibit, on display now at the Glasgow Art Club (Image: Newsquest)
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Sister Rita Dawson MBE starts laughing as she comments on one of the finer details of the stunning portrait of her.

"Somebody said, 'Imagine you getting the carpet like that'," she says.

The plush red carpet is a feature of St Margaret of Scotland Hospice. And even in the background of Gerard M Burns' painting, it's an inescapable truth: Sister Rita is part of the building and its spirit.

A special event welcomed hospice supporters to see her portrait alongside 14 others in Gerard's "Mother Glasgow" exhibit at the Glasgow Art Club.

Running until July 4, it is billed as a celebration of a multicultural city - the woman from around the world who made Glasgow home, and better.

Sister Rita, always humble, couldn't believe it, when she was asked.

But her next though, as always, was for the hospice where she has worked for decades.

"It's something that's going to help the hospice and all of the incredible staff that work there," she says.

Gerard took a number of photos to start the process as well as interviewing his subject, as he does with all his sitters before a portrait.

He didn't really notice the carpet when painting, calling it an "incidental".

Artist Gerard Burns looks at his portrait of Sister Rita (Image: Newsquest)

"I'm completely focused on the portrait, the process," he says. "Sister Rita was very nervous about this. It took a while before you said yes.

"When I meet the person at first, what I'm doing is I'm watching the individual, watching the shapes that they make."

It's all about the process and listening, he continues.

"And as soon as Sister Rita sat down and we started to blether, that's the... just the shape that you made," he says, pointing to her mannerisms.

"You were completely comfortable in that space. So, my hope with each of these portraits is that for people who have never met Sister Rita, that they will get some sense of who this woman is.

"It's a very gentle painting, I think. it's warm. It's quite welcoming.

"That's for others to say whether that's been successful, but that's my intention when I'm making it."

Gerard says his process is "all front-loaded", with conversations, the sitter's expectations and more covered before he ever starts to paint.

In the studio, he's multitasking between "20 or 30 other things" at the same time.

"I'm surrounded by all these paintings and I never quite know what I'm go up in the morning," he says. "I can be working on one painting and out of the corner of my eye, see something else and think, 'Oh, that, I know what that needs'.

"The studio is a workshop. And I think, I think a lot of the creativity actually takes place outwith."

When he first introduced the finished painting at St Margaret's, Gerard asked that there be some members of staff present for the unveiling.

"When he unveiled it, oh my goodness, it was just so amazing, the detail and the way he had captured it," says Sister Rita.

"It was just incredible. And the staff couldn't believe it.

"People who have seen the portrait would say, 'Oh my goodness, he's really captured you exactly'.

"They just absolutely amazed at the detail and the very sort of picture was telling who I am."

Sister Rita says the entire collection is "incredible", with each "totally unique" as they capture each individual.

"It is an absolute gift," she says of Gerard. "To see them all together and the work that must have gone into that. It's unbelievable."

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