Lys Hansen is one of Scotland's most colourful painters, both in her work and in her life. Her work - vivid and bursting with colour - is strongly expressive of the powerful and serious ideas it conveys. Highly prolific, Hansen is an influential and gifted artist with the ability to teach and inspire others. She trained as a painter at Edinburgh College of Art and studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh - at the former under Sir William Gillies and Sir Robin Philipson, and at the latter under David Talbot Rice and Giles Robertson. She has won many scholarships and awards, including a Prix de Rome. Since 1985 she has worked for regular periods abroad, particularly in Berlin before and after the Wall came down. Edited by Giles Sutherland, this book contains contributions from some of Scotland's most respected commentators, critics and writers including Richard Carr, Professor Richard Demarco, Iain Gale, Clare Henry, Liz Lochhead, Professor Murdo MacDonald and Cordelia Oliver.