Steven Campbell, one of Scotland's greatest post-war artists, and a key member of the New Glasgow Boys, has died aged 53.

Last night he was described as one of the finest painters of the past 100 years, and his fellow Glasgow Boys - Peter Howson, Ken Currie and Adrian Wisniewski - praised the power of his talent and his inspirational role in Scotland's artistic revival of the 1980s.

Campbell died in hospital on Wednesday, with his wife Carol at his side, after suffering complications following a ruptured appendix.

Campbell had been in hospital in Stirling since mid-July.

Last night Mrs Campbell told The Herald: "We will be holding a ceremony next week so that people can grieve his passing. He gave everything to art in his life. Whether you liked his art or you didn't everyone can recognise that painting was his life. He was a family man first but art was everything to him. He just loved to paint."

Yesterday Wisniewski des-cribed his former studio-mate and Glasgow School of Art alumni as a "force of nature" who led the way for a generation of artists, while Howson said he was a "brilliant painter of power and vision".

Currie added: "I think his legacy will endure, I think history will judge Steven as a pivotal figure in Scottish culture. I think he had more to come and I see it very much as a career contracted. He led the way and he inspired a lot of people."

Howson said: "I am really sorry and shocked. Without Steven the Glasgow Boys would not have happened. He did so brilliantly in New York and it all happened when he came back. I remember visiting him in his studio: it was a total mess, but in it he was this figure of such power."

Wisniewski added: "He was very romantic about being an artist, he loved the history, he loved Paris. He was pivotal in the early 1980s when Scotland was looking for some kind of cultural identity and he helped bring such visual inspiration to that.

"It's very sad, I think there was so much more to come from him."

Regarded as the leader of the young generation of figurative painters who revitalised Scottish art in the 1980s, Campbell was born in Glasgow in 1953 and attended the Glasgow School of Art between 1978 and 1982, but it was his success in working in New York that sealed his reputation.

He found great commercial success in the US, especially through Barbara Toll Fine Art gallery, international success which not only inspired his peers but seemed to reinvigorate Scottish painting for another generation.

Campbell left Rutherglen Academy at 16, and started out as a steelworker, spending seven years as a fitter and engineer.

Always a learned and voracious reader, his used to sit in the cabin of the crane in the steelworks, reading existentialist literature, and when he arrived at the Glasgow School of Art, he became an inspirational figure, known as much for his imposing physical presence as his prodigious talent.

Along with Wisniewski, Currie and Howson his imaginative, figurative art became popular critically and commercially, especially after a 1985 exhibition at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow.

His last major show was The Caravan Club in 2002, at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, which came after a number of years where he appeared to have dropped from public view amid concerns over his health.

Pat Fisher, principal curator of the gallery, said that although he had been quiet publicly, his muse was as powerful as ever.

"He was this remarkable heroic figure and inspirational to many, many young artists," she said, "I remember him very well in his prime, with his flowing hair and a cape, and while he had that sense of power, he also had a wonderful sense of humour.

"When we unpacked the art for the show it covered the floor of the entire gallery, the canvasses were piled high. His inquisitive drive was just so powerful, he had a constantly questing mind."

John McKechnie, director of the Glasgow Print Studio, said: "There is no doubt he was one of the great painters not only of his generation, but of the last 100 years.

"He was such an individual, you could say eccentric - there was never time for a cosy chat, it was always a debate with Steven - but he was a very generous man and, at the last exhibition with us, you could see he was a family man too. He was a major, major figure and a great loss, a painter of such power and imagination."

Campbell's art hangs in many public collection, including Glasgow Museums, the British Council, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Tate Britain in London and the Tate in Liverpool.

John Leighton, the director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: "We are very sorry indeed to hear of the death of Steven Campbell, who was without doubt one of Scotland's most gifted artists and one of its most distinctive characters.

"Campbell's invention and creativity never diminished throughout his career.

"His painting was strange, visionary and refreshingly unpredictable, the product of a talent which was respected internationally and which will be much missed."

Campbell leaves his wife, Carol, and three children.

Peter Howson