George Wyllie

George Wyllie MBE (born 1921) is a Scottish artist who resides in Gourock. He worked as a customs officer before taking up art. He describes himself as a "scul?tor".

He has produced a number of notable public works notably the Straw Locomotive and the Paper Boat. The Straw Locomotive consisted of a full size steam locomotive, constructed from straw, and suspended from the Finnieston Crane, by the River Clyde in Glasgow. The sculpture was built at the former locomotive works at Springburn, and suspended from the crane for several months during the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival, before being taken back to the Springburn site and ceremonially burnt. The 80-foot Paper Boat was exhibited at The Tramway in Glasgow and at other sites including a placement on the Hudson River in New York, for which visit it carried quotations from Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

His Slap and Tickle Machine is in the collection of the People's Palace, Glasgow, and wind-up stainless steel palm trees and a sculptural bandstand featured in the café of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. Wyllie's work can also be seen in the Clyde Clock (depicting a clock on running legs), outside Buchanan bus station and in the Monument to Maternity (depicting a huge nappy pin), on the site of the former Rottenrow Maternity Hospital.

The bronze sculpture of a wine bottle and glasses which is on display at The Boathouse was made in 1976, inspired by the aftermath of Scottish Arts Council exhibition openings where wine was liberally dispensed!