Item NMC/0058 - Iona

Artist in watercolour, pen and ink, mixed media; muralist, designer and teacher, born in Glasgow. He left school to become an apprentice carpet designer for Templeton's, first exhibiting with the firm's art club. After war service Shanks took the diploma course at The Glasgow School of Art. Upon graduating in 1950 he started on a career as a freelance mural painter; was a designer and printer with Edinburgh Weavers' Dovecot Studios for eight years; stage designer with Rutherglen Rep; and teacher at Glasgow School of Art and in schools in the city and in Renfrewshire, where he settled in Kilbarchan. He termed his main occupation as "landscape painter", having been in love with the landscapes of the Western Highlands since his parents took him to the Isle of Skye aged seven. These were portrayed in his Scottish Horizons show at Cyril Gerber Fine Art Glasgow, in 1994, again at Cyril Gerber in 2004, and previously in solo exhibitions throughout Scotland. He was a member of RSW and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, also exhibiting with RSA, Royal Scottish Society and Glasgow Group.