Born in Fife, Scotland in 1951, Jack Vettriano grew up in the industrial seaside town of Methil, Fife. He left school at 16 and later became an apprentice mining engineer. Jack Vettriano only took up painting as a hobby in the 1970s, when a schoolteacher friend bought him a set of watercolours for his 21st birthday. His earliest paintings, under the name "Jack Hoggan", were copies or pastiches of impressionist paintings – his first painting was a copy of Monet's Poppy Fields. Much of his influence came from studying paintings at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery in neighbouring Kirkcaldy. In 1984, Vettriano first submitted his work to the Shell-sponsored art exhibition in the museum. 

In 1989, he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at London's Royal Academy and his new life as an artist began from that point on.

Over the last twenty years, interest in Jack Vettriano's works has been growing consistently. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York.

2004 was an exceptional year in Jack Vettriano's career; his best known painting, "the Singing Butler" was sold at Sotheby's for close to £750,000; he was awarded an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts and was the subject of a South Bank Show documentary, entitled 'Jack Vettriano: The People's Painter'.

From 1994-2007, Jack Vettriano was represented by Portland Gallery in London but the relationship ended in June 2007. Since then, Vettriano has been focusing on a variety of private projects, including the launch of a new book, and painting of a portrait of Zara Phillips as part of a charity fund-raising project for Sport Relief, the experience of which was captured in a documentary broadcast on BBC1 in March 2008.

Jack Vettriano divides his time between his homes in Fife, London and Nice.

Partial Art works list of Jack Vettriano:

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