Beaton shot to fame in 1984. While still a student she won the London National Portrait Gallery award. The judges rightly recognised her gifts for a vigorous line, for wit, boldness and an honest eye.

That eye now has a full blast of life-experience. How many artists can introduce household domestic items like a Hoover along with potent lovers?! Her family of five often features in her work with its focus on people, wry portraits and on the joy of paint and painting. A profound love of the actual physical, sensual enjoyment to be had with paint has never wavered. 33 years on her appetite for painting is just as keen as ever. Above all, she is known for creating vivid, optimistic pictures that make for sheer enjoyment.

This show in central Glasgow’s prime 9 George Square is next door to the building allocated for the National Gallery of Scotland 20 years ago – which failed. After a hard-fought battle, heavy politics orchestrated by Edinburgh won out. A huge mistake and great pity. This superb space shows just what could easily be achieved even now with the right will and, of course, a council with enough cash. Meanwhile, Beaton’s private enterprise has succeeded in achieving a perfect home for her big, ambitious pictures.

All her work is based on looking – on life drawings done with the model in front of her, or landscapes done directly on the spot in Iona, Arran, Harris or Majorca. Then she takes these drawings as her initial inspiration and incorporates them into imaginative scenarios. “It all starts with reality” she explained. And it all begins with abstraction. I was surprised at this. She told me the pictures all start with colour, brushwork, maybe a monoprint. “If it works I leave it. Then it’s woven into the narrative, into the story, the picture. Things evolve!” The show’s title, “Alternate REALITIES” highlights this process.

Beaton works in series. There is a wonderful series on motherhood – why not when you have four kids. A fractious baby, bored husband, restless daughters, all caught with unsentimental eye. A group of pictures of musicians dating back to 1990 reflect her whole family’s preoccupations. Two important recent series use narrative and imagination. Her “Goddesses” are Beaton’s modern-day re-interpretations of mythological nymphs like Flora, Fortune, Eve, et al. which undermine the traditional male view. Some are, it’s true, rounded, plump, sensual, offering an embrace but others hide subtle political comments on femicide and torture.

At a time of ME TOO, you can see that her focus on the power, but also abuse of women, goes way back. These are not frivolous. They are thoughtful paintings. Picasso’s famous line, “For me, there are only two kinds of women, goddesses and doormats,” would not be well received here.

“Jobs for the Girls” – which includes a gorgeous Songbird still wet off the easel, is her latest notion, capturing all the wit, playfulness and fun to be found in the serious side of life. Even the humorous title sets the scene for a vivid rotund Aviculturist – (posh word for bird breeder), Lesbian Temptress, schoolgirl Truant and a Story Teller – (spot Red Ridinghood.) Frank humour plays a key role here.

Ironically Glasgow School of Art became famous in the 1980s for its fine draughtsmanship via the macho work of men who graduated just ahead of Beaton. In fact, they had nothing like her remarkable ability to make a quirky line sing. Her magical charcoal dances over the paper, always ‘Searching for the perfect curve.’