ARTIST JACK Vettriano was in Perthshire at the weekend to bid farewell to a series of paintings which helped launch his career.

“I’ve come to Gleneagles as this is probably the last time I will see these paintings together,” said the Fife-born artist on Saturday.

The Bluebird series of seven paintings was commissioned by designer Sir Terence Conran for his Bluebird Club in London and have adorned the restaurant’s walls since 1997 but are being sold as the club is being refurbished.

The pictures, which take as their inspiration the celebrated Bluebird cars Sir Malcolm Campbell used to set land speed records during the 20s and 30s, are being auctioned by Sotheby’s at Gleneagles Hotel on Wednesday and are expected to collectively fetch in excess of £1.2 million.

Mr Vettriano said, “The Bluebird series was one of my first major commissions, and I was thrilled when Sir Terence Conran approached me with the project.

“I did a lot of research on the subject and spent six weeks in my studio producing the works, that’s slow for me. I then waited for the dreaded call...he loved them.”

The artist has a pragmatic attitude to the way the prices of his works have soared—his most famous painting, The Singing Butler, was originally sold for £3000 but later fetched nearly £750,000 at auction.

“In the early days, when I painted something I thought was good, I didn’t want to let it go but I realised that is business,” he said.

“If someone bought one of my paintings years ago and it has gone up, I think ‘good luck to you,’ I got the price I wanted at the time.

“When I received the catalogue for this sale I was astonished to see the prices,” he added.

The Vettriano paintings are only one element of the annual Sotheby’s sale and other artists featured on Wednesday will include Alberto Morrocco from Dundee and the Scottish colourists F. C. B. Cadell and J. D. Fergusson.

The paintings sale is expected to fetch a total of more than £5.6 million.

Gleneagles is the venue for the auction house’s sale of sporting guns tomorrow, which includes items from the collection of world champion racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart.