RENOWNED Scots artist Archie Forrest will present his first exhibition in more than 20 years in Glasgow this month.

Part of the Creative MacKintosh Festival 2013, the Glasgow School of Art graduate's exhibition will take place in the city's Willow Tea Room.

The exhibition, which opens on Saturday, will be held in the Billiard Room - which is not ­often accessible to the public.

It follows Mr Forrest's hugely successful exhibition in the Portland Gallery in London earlier this year.

He studied and taught at Glasgow School of Art, and created the bust of Donald Dewar in Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

Other highlights of the festival include new acquisitions on display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and a photographic exhibition at the Lighthouse.

Mackintosh's love of nature will be celebrated in From Garden To Garment, a show at the Hill House, Helensburgh, with work by ­Sofia Perina-Miller,

And there will be an embroidery masterclass at House For An Art Lover in Bellahouston Park.

Susan Garnsworthy, project manager of the Glasgow Mackintosh Group, said: "Mackintosh was the most amazing architect, ­designer and artist.

"The fact he covered all three areas is amazing - he was a true ­innovator and a real creative spirit.

"Although many of the guides written about him put the work in context, he defies context."

The festival coincides with the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, which started last week, with Friday Night is Mackintosh Music Night at Queen's Cross Church.

The event was hosted by BBC presenter ­Judith Ralston - a former opera singer - and featured performances by recital pianist Elaine Gould, and Scots baritone Paul Keohone.

Meanwhile, a music cabinet designed by Mackintosh, currently at the Lighthouse, will be on show at the church for the first two weeks of this month.

It was designed for ­Ellen Pickering, the daughter of John ­Anderson, the owner of Scotland's largest ­department store the Royal Polytechnic (now Debenhams) in Argyle Street, and shown in Mackintosh's watercolour design of 1898.

n Archie Forrest, Billiards Room Exhibition will run at The Willow Tea Rooms, from Saturday until October 27.

rebecca.gray@eveningtimes.co.uk