Item DC 102/1/169 - Suggested Design for the McTaggart Memorial Window at Westpark Church, Denny

Alfredo Avella, DA AMGP, was born in Cava de Tirreni in Italy in 1924. He studied part time under Hugh Adam Crawford at Glasgow School of Art, attending evening classes between 1946-1948 and the early 1950s. Avella was encouraged by John Duncan Ferguson and exhibited as an independent with the New Scottish Group at McLellan Galleries in 1956. Two early paintings from the period are on permanent view at The Ferguson Gallery in Perth. He studied Stained Glass at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1965. He was made an associate of British Society of Master Glass Painters in 1966. He became a visiting member of staff at Glasgow School of Art in 1968 and was a full time lecturer in the Stained Glass and Murals department between 1969 and 1982.

Continuing to be a painter and stained glass artist in Scotland, Avella was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Visual Art residency in Amsterdam in 1980. He had many one man shows and group exhibitions in Scotland, including; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and The Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh in 1980. He undertook many commissions in stained glass in Scotland including; Drumchapel St Andrews Church, Glasgow, McTaggart Memorial Westpark Church, Denny, Denny Civic Hall, Craiglockhart Parish Church, Edinburgh, St John the Baptist Church, Port Glasgow, St Mark’s Church, Oxgangs, Edinburgh, Joy of Life, Queen Margaret's College, Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, Musselburgh, Glasgow Police Federation in Woodside Place, Glasgow. He also undertook commissions in metal and mosaic, such as at the Motherwell and Wishaw Civic Centre and the County District Library in Dunbarton. There are a number of his paintings in private collections. Avella died in Glasgow in 1982.

Artist and teacher. Dympna Foy taught Saturday morning children's classes at The Glasgow School of Art.