An Inverness art lecturer has said he is delighted to be exhibiting alongside King Charles III.
Frank To said he is grateful to the King, who gave him support through the Prince’s Trust when he needed it most after graduating from art school.
Mr To is now a lecturer at the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) Inverness.
And now King Charles and Mr To have works of art on show next to each other at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.
The king has two watercolours included in the show, while Mr To was chosen from 3,000 hopefuls to have his work included.
Mr To’s work sold out before the show began.
He said: “I’m exhibiting alongside with King Charles III who is showcasing two of his watercolour studies.
“There is a wee bit of history between myself and King Charles III as I was supported by his charity 10 years ago through the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust.
Charity support helped art career
“His charity supported young Scottish entrepreneurs under age of 30 both financially and mentorship.
“His charity helped me in the early days of my art career when I graduated from art school. The Scottish Arts Council, now Creative Scotland, did not want to fund me as I was deemed as ‘too commercial’ back then and it didn’t have any capacity to fund new graduates.
“I actually had the honour of meeting King Charles in 2009 in which I showed him some samples of my work and even exchanged some advice and techniques on watercolours.”
The skills he learned while under the Prince’s Trust mentorship helped Mr To thrive during the recession from 2008-2011.
He said: “It was actually that time that I truly made my name as a Scottish contemporary artist.
“Now it did rattle the cages of both the ‘old guards’ and the ‘new avant-garde’ artists believing that by breaking the traditions and having business support from a charity was a ‘sell out’, my view is that you cannot solely survive on artistic integrity.
“I’ve always been driven to innovate and that’s what I did when I was being supported by the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust.”
Mr To’s ignited gunpowder artwork is on show in the Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition in Belfast until January 3 2023, and at the Royal West of England Academy Annual Exhibition in Bristol until January 8.
Conversation