Painter, photographer and teacher, whose work embraced figurative, Surrealist and latterly entirely abstract pictures. By then, he felt that “the art of painting is not about other things, but has an independent existence of its own.” Baillie was born in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, son of a coal miner, and gained his diploma from Glasgow School of Art in 1927, having studied with A E Haswell Miller. He had first exhibited at RSA in 1925 (at this time Baillie’s works were mainly in transparent watercolour), and he was to show there regularly, also at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Baillie taught from 1928, and for this purpose made an extensive study of modern artistic trends. In 1931, Baillie had works bought to decorate the merchant ship Monarch of Bermuda.