Born and raised in Dunfermline, Moffat studied at Edinburgh College of Art during the 1960s alongside John Bellany, who is also represented in the Boswell Collection. Moffat soon emerged as a leading Scottish Realist, so-called because of their social awareness and rejection of the decorative principles that defined the first half of the twentieth century.
His main body of work is a series of portraits which depict the Scottish Renaissance poets, such as Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean and Robert Garioch. These portraits were first shown at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, in 1981 and now hang in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
From 1979, Moffat taught at Glasgow School of Art, encouraging a new generation of figurative painters including Peter Howson, Ken Currie and Steven Campbell, often known as the New Glasgow Boys. Moffat’s contributions to Scottish figurative painting were recognised in 2004 when he was elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as in 2006 when he was awarded an OBE for services to the arts. He is currently chair of the Essential School of Painting.
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