voco® Grand Central Glasgow
Wall of Fame
Now the starry history of our hotel is captured in oil, pastel, pencil and print as we showcase impressive artwork by Scottish artists in our central gallery space.
Since we first opened in 1883, our hotel has hosted some of the world’s most famous faces, golden age stars including JFK, Gene Kelly, Nat King Cole, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra all stayed here.
To celebrate, we opened a competition in collaboration with The Herald in 2019 asking artists of all levels of experience, to create a portrait of one of our famous residents. An esteemed judging panel including the art critic and writer Jan Patience, and Paul Bray, General Manager of voco Grand Central awarded Gordon Irving the winning prize with his incredible portrait of Billy Connolly. Gordon’s painting of the Big Yin is now displayed alongside 21 other portraits which were shortlisted as part of a gallery wall space inside the hotel to be enjoyed by our guests.
We’d like to thank all of the artists who took part in the competition and a special mention goes to those who’s paintings now feature in the central stairwell of our hotel.
With special thanks to the following artists:
Billy Connolly by Gordon Irving – 1st Place
Nat King Cole by Luke Wilson – 2nd Place
Abbot and Costello Meets Vivienne Leigh by Linda Bell
Charlie Chaplin by Keith Massey
Danny Kaye by Gordon White
Frank Sinatra by Paul Trainor
Sammy Davis Junior by Diana Quintana
Frank Sinatra by John Michael Berry
Gene Kelly by Jason Bentley
John F Kennedy by Nicola Willis
John Lennon by Dennis Shields
Mae West by Daria Zapala
John F Kennedy by Alastair Faulkner
Mick Jagger by Ian Leyden
Vivien Leigh by Malcolm McGonigle
Winston Churchill by David Hamilton
Fred Astaire by Aileen Cotton
Billy Connolly by Gregor Smith
Jean Simmons by Stuart Skinner
Mick Jagger by Ben Jeffrey
Sammy Davis Junior by Rob Keiller
Mick Jagger by Steven Murray