News & stories

Notes from the estate on Bruce Thomson's work, the stories behind individual pieces, and the commissions that carried his art beyond the gallery.

Snowstorm on the Family Home, from one of Bruce Thomson's illustrated letters home from the North Sea

Letters Home · 1 Aug 2026

Letters home from the Buchan Alpha

Four weeks at a time on a North Sea oil platform, Bruce sent his children long letters on rig fax paper, illustrated in biro and highlighter. The family always thought he would have made a wonderful children's book illustrator.

Read the story →

The Witches' Revelry, Bruce Thomson's Tam o' Shanter etching for the Glenfarclas commission

The Commission · 19 Aug 2024

The Glenfarclas 40 Year Old whisky labels

How Bruce became one of three Scottish artists chosen to illustrate a millennium release of the Glenfarclas 40 Year Old, answering with Robert Burns' Tam o' Shanter and The Jolly Beggars.

Read the story →