IT is rather fitting that the red sandstone much of Glasgow is built on is the material of choice for some of the pieces in sculptor Tom Allan’s new exhibition.

The interpretations of city landmarks by the Gartcosh-based artist take a fresh perspective on their bold lines.

“Glasgow has always meant a lot to me and this is the first big show I’ve done here for a couple of years. I thought it was a good idea to have a theme,” he says.

“We all know about the wonderful carved sculpture on many of the Victorian buildings in the city centre. I want to draw attention to that – to remind people what an amazing heritage of stone sculpture we have. Glasgow was and is a great place for sculpture, hence the title of the show –

See Glasgow? See Sculpture!.

I also want to show the buildings themselves as sculptures, by taking certain features and exaggerating or simplifying them.”

A long-time member of Glasgow Sculpture Studios and the RGI, the show at the Kelly Gallery runs in chronological order, starting with St Theneu, a sculpture made from a piece of stone salvaged from the former St Enoch Hotel in Glasgow that usually sits in the foyer of the The new Housing Association.

“I made this head of St Enoch, who was the mother of St Mungo, a strong warrior princess. It was inspired by the fact I had seen the façade of the building before it was demolished, being able to see through the façade like a mask,” he explains.

Portland stone from the south of England has been shaped into the Tolbooth. More simpler and exaggerated, it still has, more or less, the same proportions of the steeple at Glasgow Cross.

“A lot of these pieces are quite experimental for me, I don’t usually go so fine with the stone,” says Tom. “I am a carver rather than a modeller, I prefer to be chopping lumps off things rather than building up. It’s normally stone and marble I work in.”

Like a giant chess piece, the column of red sandstone that is Gartloch Gothic is one of Tom’s local buildings, near Gartcosh.

And another piece of red sandstone has been cleverly carved on fur sides to reveal the facades of different Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed buildings, including Glasgow School of Art and Queen’s Cross Church.

“My idea originally was to make something he might have built in the 1920s or 1930s – maybe even a block of high flats – which he never got round to,” says Tom.

The Mackintosh theme continues in Glasgow Rose, made by Tom in the spring at a craft festival in the Gallery of Modern Art.

The very top of St George’s Tron Church has been beautifully rendered in limestone.

“I’m calling it Temple Dome Spire because it has three architectural features that don’t always go together – a Greek temple, a Roman type dome and a Christian steeple,” says Tom.

“I like it because it shows unifying architecture and maybe also suggesting a unifying outlook on faith, ironically in the church that caused a split, rather sadly, from the Church of Scotland.”

Carved from slate, the Finnieston Crane is instantly recognisable, with the added touch of moving parts.

Nearby is Tom’s own homage to Scottish artist George Wyllie: a marble paper boat.

The Red Road flats, Tait Tower from the 1938 Empire Exhibition and the Clydeside Armadillo are all there, circling Dear Green Place, a carved fallen Italian Cypress tree that tells the story of Glasgow’s coat of arms.

See Glasgow? See Sculpture!, Kelly Gallery, Douglas Street, Glasgow, until October 17.