Still Life

The Beauty of the Ordinary

In the hustle and bustle of the modern world, artists invite us to pay attention to the silent and the miniscule. By giving form to the things of life and death, they say something about human beings and our history: our attachments, our hopes and fears, our caprices and follies. Laurence Bertrand Dorléac, 2022

The Beauty of the Ordinary

In 2022, The Louvre held Les Choses, a once-ina-lifetime survey of the still life genre, marking their first major exhibition on the subject since 1952. Described as a sensualist’s feast and, in true Parisian fashion, a philosopher’s tale, Les Choses explored how our relationship with things reflects our attempt to make sense of the world. How we think about objects reveals much about our place in the world and our interactions with it.

Still life, as a genre, focuses on the depiction of inanimate objects—often from daily life, such as flowers, food, and personal items. It has its roots in ancient civilisations but gained prominence during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, becoming an important part of European art. These paintings celebrated beauty in the mundane, capturing the essence of ordinary objects and elevating them into extraordinary works of art. Often, they emphasise the transient nature of life. From simple compositions to intricate symbolic arrangements, still life continues to captivate both artists and audiences, remaining an essential genre in both historical and contemporary art.

Our exhibition offers a small homage to the monumental Les Choses exhibition, as still life remains a thriving and classic genre in Scottish art practice. Rather than attempting a broad survey, we present a selection of contemporary and vintage works, showcasing how artists across disciplines turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. We therefore highlight the ongoing, diverse language of still life.

In the early 20th century, Paris was the global centre of modern art, attracting avant-garde

artists from around the world. It was in this environment that the work of The Scottish Colourists, particularly S.J. Peploe (1871-1935), flourished. Peploe is regarded as a master of the still life genre, and his influence continues to resonate today. To bring this tradition into the present, Guy Peploe has invited Ewan McClure to create a series of still life paintings using several of his grandfather’s objects. We begin our exhibition with McClure’s The Act of Painting, a contemporary nod to the Scottish still life tradition.

Scottish artists have used still life as a medium to explore beauty, transience, and material culture. Embracing both tradition and innovation, these artists have drawn inspiration from historical influences while pushing the boundaries of form, composition, and meaning. From meticulous realism to expressive abstraction, Scottish still life painters reflect a variety of approaches, often with a deep sensitivity to light, texture, and colour. Whether celebrating the quiet poetry of domestic objects or engaging with broader philosophical ideas, these artists affirm the ongoing relevance of still life in contemporary art.

Still Life | The Beauty of the Ordinary brings together a diverse group of artists whose work reflects the richness and variety of still life in Scotland from the 20th century to the present day. Through these paintings and objects, we gain insight into how artists have reinterpreted the genre, responding to both personal and collective narratives, and demonstrate the continuing relevance of still life in contemporary practice.

Christina Jansen

Ewan McClure in his studio, 2024

Still Life | The Legacy of S.J. Peploe

S.J. Peploe painted still life throughout his life. For periods he used a particular group of objects which he could position and reposition in pursuit of technical satisfaction. Certain objects are associated with a time period. The silver coffee pot and black bottle appear in work made in his Edinburgh studios between 1900 and 1909, giving way latterly to flowers in blue and white pots, which he deployed for the rest of his life. In the later period pewter, a dark teapot and the bust of the Venus de Medici are familiar from his compositions. Many of these quite ordinary items have sat on family shelves for the subsequent hundred years or so, quite unremarkable. In lending them to Ewan McClure they have been revivified, positioned again in the pursuit of significance and made to serve a new master. By his own poetic and eloquent account, which follows, McClure needed to begin work in order to set aside the ghosts of their earlier deployment and in so doing he has created a body of work looking forward as much as celebrating a previous, Colourist incarnation.

Above:

S.J. Peploe (1871-1935)

Peonie Roses, c.1920

61 x 50.8 cm (private collection)

Below:

S.J. Peploe (1871-1935)

Still Life with Coffee Pot oil on canvas

62.8 x 83.8 cm (private collection)

Right:

S.J. Peploe (1871-1935)

Kirkcudbright, Tollbooth, c.1915 (detail) oil on canvas

32 x 40.6 cm (private collection)

Guy Peploe

oil on canvas

The Act of Painting

Six months ago, I had yet to make a start on this collection. The hallowed objects were already living with me in the studio, occupying my mind and stirring my imagination, but I was detained by prior work. During those weeks of anticipation, I couldn’t help deliberating over what, exactly, I had so enthusiastically agreed to. It had been obvious that I should embrace this tangible connection with my favourite Colourist, but the props didn’t come with a brief. Should I reimagine them in explicitly modern settings? Could I make them my own through some innovation in paint-handling or pictorial space? The avenue that seemed wisest to avoid was S.J. Pastiche; arbitrarily imposing mannerisms like a bad forger. But what if some deliberate emulation could deepen my understanding of Peploe’s creative and artistic mindset? I warmed to this idea, seriously considering a Method acting approach, inhabiting the role to the point of researching 1920s suits to wear! Although knowingly flirting with pastiche, I would justify the exercise under the title, The Act of Painting. But in reality, painting is not an act in that sense. When I finally got to work, brush in one hand, Peploe book in the other, I felt a dissonance whenever I tried to follow his example too literally; thrown into self-consciousness by every counterfeit gesture. I hadn’t foreseen that the attempt

to escape myself would bring me barreling back into view; anathema to concentration and flow. As much as I wanted to demonstrate that I had understood and incorporated the lessons of Peploe; his ever-evolving compositional ingenuity, his modernist compression of space and inspired sureness of touch, I simply had to turn all of my attention to the objects and arrangements as I perceived them. Leaning into direct, observational painting, I could lose myself in a broadly naturalistic rendering that felt authentic. I never entirely shed a sense of responsibility towards these objects, permeated as they are with history, but ultimately had to carry that lightly to declare anything “done.”

I must express my gratitude to the Peploe family for entrusting these precious items to me. Working with them has been the greatest joy. And I acknowledge that every Scottish painter of the last century has reckoned with Peploe on some level, with a notable few extending the Colourist idiom into new territory. I make no such claim for this crop of work, but hope it will nevertheless be enjoyed, and will contribute to a vibrant, ongoing discussion.

Ewan McClure

Ewan McClure in his studio, 2022

Ewan McClure b.1975

Ewan McClure is a Scottish artist who graduated from Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, in 1997 under the tutelage of Sandy Fraser. Gaining national recognition through the BP Portrait Award and Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, he was later shortlisted for the Conversations Prize at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2015. Beyond portraiture, his work extends to observational still-life and landscape painting. From 2018-2023, he served as artist-in-residence at Hornel’s former studio in Broughton House, Kirkcudbright. Deeply connected to the tradition of belle peinture, his practice is defined by exceptional draughtsmanship, a profound understanding of oil painting, and a respect for the medium. His work is held in notable collections, including The Fleming Collection, Princeton Theological Seminary, and The Royal Scottish Academy.

1 Fresh Cut Roses, 2024 oil on mounted linen 55 x 42 cm

2 Venus, 2024 oil on mounted linen 61 x 74 cm

3 Venus with Apricot Roses, 2024 oil on mounted linen 74 x 61 cm

4 Wordless Page, 2024 oil on mounted linen 61 x 74 cm

5 Still Life with Refracted Lemon, 2024 oil on mounted linen 42 x 60 cm

6 Blue Mandarin, 2024 oil on mounted linen

52 x 41 cm

7 Fruit and Silver, 2024 oil on mounted linen 42 x 55 cm

8 Lobster, 2024 oil on mounted linen 60 x 42 cm

9 Uzuri Quartet, 2024 oil on mounted linen 42 x 55 cm

10 Lilies and Roses, 2024 oil on mounted linen 74 x 61 cm

11 Fruit and Flowers, 2024 oil on mounted linen 61 x 74 cm

12 Peploe’s Coffee Pot, 2024 oil on mounted linen

42 x 55 cm

13 The Blue Jug, 2024 oil on mounted linen 36 x 47 cm

14 Eilidh in White, 2024 oil on mounted linen 61 x 56 cm

15 New Material, featuring Girl Reading, 2024 oil on mounted linen 45 x 54 cm

16 Tulips by the Tollbooth, 2024 oil on mounted linen 70 x 47 cm

Contemporary Still Life

Sheila Anderson-Hardy p30

Colin Brown p32

John Brown p38

Oliver Cook p54

Philip Eglin p58

Hitomi Hosono p62

Angie Lewin p66

Christine McArthur p70

Rowan Paton p76

Ron Sandford p82

Lara Scobie p84

Naoko Shibuya p86

Emily Sutton p88

Geoff Uglow p90

Angie Lewin in her studio, 2017, photgraph by Alun Callender

Sheila Anderson-Hardy b.1956

Sheila Anderson-Hardy studied at The Glasgow School of Art in the late 70s under Alexandra Gardener and James Cosgrove. She is now a full time painter based in the Scottish Borders. She combines Sumi-e ink washes, watercolour and collage to depict landscape, verges and hedgerows and her encounters with the wildlife that inhabit these spaces. Her work is densely layered and delicately drawn. As well as several successful solo and group exhibitions her work is regularly selected for prestigious national open exhibitions. She was elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 2024.

By the end of Autumn my studio is crammed with foraged hedgerow foliage and seedheads stuffed into a variety of old jugs, vintage earthenware pots and vases slowly drying out in the heat of the woodburner. With the addition of a few fresh flowers these are subjects for my still life studies. Visual poems offering the simplicity of familiar objects and celebrating the life cycles of plants and flowers. Sheila Anderson-Hardy

17 Seed-heads, Hips and Honeysuckle, 2024 watercolour and collage on paper

57 x 38 cm

Colin Brown b.1962

Colin Brown is a fine artist and former graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee. After graduating, a John Kinross Scholarship awarded by the Royal Scottish Academy enabled him to spend four months in Florence. In 1988 he established a studio in Glasgow, where he began practicing as a full-time artist. He also spent four years in Dusseldorf painting and exhibiting with several German galleries. He is now based in Stonehaven in northeast Scotland.

Brown often takes a a Redoute image as his starting point for a still life:

For me the essence of these works is the setting up of a direct conversation with an artist from a different age. I introduce a range of modern day elements including repeated circular forms, fragments of text, dot patterns and paint splashes. Traces of humankind float through these images of nature.

By placing elements of the natural world, in particular birds and flowers, into urban settings I question the long term future for all of us while striving for a better understanding of the environment which surrounds us. Colin Brown

18 Sven Väth, 2023

mixed media painting on board

120 x 80 cm

19 White Lily, 2023

mixed media painting on board

60 x 60 cm

20 Gloxina 2, 2024

mixed media painting on board

60 x 60 cm

21 Hybrid Iris, 2024

mixed media painting on board

40 x 30 cm

22 Sweet Iris, 2023

mixed media painting on board

60 x 40 cm

John Brown b.1945

John Brown studied at Glasgow School of Art (1963–68), later teaching there before serving as Director of Arts at several Scottish schools, including the Edinburgh Academy. He is a long-standing exhibitor at RSW, as well as the Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute. He has earned numerous awards, including the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Association Residency. Brown’s still life paintings are distinguished by a rich, vibrant palette and a dynamic approach to acrylic, mixed media, and collage. His work explores texture, colour, and composition, capturing everyday objects with depth and energy.

On planning this body of still life paintings the question was ‘what to paint?’ and the next question was one of subject, composition, scale and narrative. Objects from my studio collection of bric-a-brac became the subject as did images found in old sketch books as in ‘Jars of Sweets in a Keralan Window’. The structure of some of the larger paintings was helped by including windows, ‘Spanish Window’ and ‘Breakfast at Barney’s’. However, the scale in this body of work ranges from these large vertical compositions to small individual studies. The small paintings are close studies of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Their composition is sometimes asymmetrical balancing flat supporting shapes with three dimensional form. ‘Silver Dancing Shoes’ and ‘Birthday Still Life’ are more traditional in approach. That is, first building a composition around a theme on the studio floor, solving problems of structure, colour and form before the painting even gets on the easel.

John Brown

John Brown in his studio, 2022

23 Breakfast at Barney’s, 2024 acrylic and collage on board 120 x 122 cm

24 Corfu Market Stall, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

76 x 81 cm

25 Spanish Window, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

122 x 122 cm

26 Beaujolais Sweet Peas, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

21.5 x 25 cm

27 Still Life at a Night Window, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

76 x 81 cm

28 Five Pomegranates, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

32 x 28 cm

29 A String of Red Onions, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

21.5 x 25 cm

30 Devotional Flowers, Paxos, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

61 x 61 cm

31 Six Figs, 2024

acrylic and collage on board 29 x 32 cm

32 Silver Dancing Shoes, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

102 x 122 cm

33 White Cyclamen, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

25.5 x 28 cm

34 White Sweet Peas, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

21.5 x 25 cm

35 Studio Still Life, 2024

acrylic and collage on board

117.5 x 117.5 cm

36 Two Quinces, 2024 acrylic and collage on board 24 x 31 cm

37 One Artichoke, 2024

acrylic and collage on board 24 x 31 cm

38 Birthday Still Life, 2024

acrylic and collage on board 100 x 100 cm

Oliver Cook b.1992

39 Wave Vase, 2023

Kilkenny limestone

H31 x D19 cm

40 Vase with Lid Sculpture, 2023

white translucent alabaster

H27 x W18 cm

41 Two Footed Vase, 2023

white translucent alabaster

H18.5 x W31 x D24 cm

This oversized jug form is one of a series that draw inspiration from 15th century Italian Maiolica vessels, observed through drawing at the Bargello Museum in Florence. The bold surface treatment is generated through painting, pouring and dribbling a coloured red slip onto hand-rolled, plastic clay sheets which are then pressed and joined in reverse in a plaster mould. This jug both acknowledges and takes influence from 18th century English slipware and the gestural works of the painter, Cy Twombly.

Philip Eglin

Philip Eglin in his studio, 2021

42 Red on Cream, 2025 earthenware H45 x W38 x D28 cm

This large bucket is one of a series of unabashed re-workings of Spode’s Indian Sporting Series; depictions of hunting scenes produced in the early 19th century, which themselves were based on engravings taken from paintings by the artist Samuel Howitt. The pictorial narratives involve colonial game hunters and their Indian entourage firing from elephant and horse-back, as they hunt tiger, leopard and boar within exotic landscapes.

I am interested in the change in status that results when a one-off object is borne out of a hitherto mass-produced one. The surface imagery has been generated using a combination of layering and stencilling in a cobalt blue slip under a transparent earthenware glaze. A final firing adds carefully selected details in coloured enamel print, further emphasising specific elements of the scene. Philip Eglin

43 Shooting a Leopard in a Tree, 2025 earthenware

H46 x W37 x D38 cm

Hitomi Hosono b.1978

Hitomi Hosono’s ceramics are rooted in both Japanese and European traditions. Hitomi studied ceramics at Kanazawa College of Art, Japan from 1998 to 2002 where she developed her knowledge of the Kutani ceramic tradition of Kanazawa City, before studying Ceramic Product Design at Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen, Denmark from 2005-2006. She then completed an MA in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art, London from 2007-2009. Hitomi Hosono has exhibited both nationally and internationally and received the 2014 Jerwood Makers Open Prize, Jerwood Visual Arts, London and the Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize, London in 2013. Hitomi is now based in London and is represented by Adrian Sassoon, London. The Scottish Gallery was honoured to present Hosono’s first solo exhibition in Scotland in February 2025.

Hitomi Hosono’s detailed porcelain vessels reference the natural world and botanical specimens. With a chalk-like finish and gold embellishments, the work captivates with its delicacy and has attracted the patronage of museums worldwide including the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh.

44 A Chrysanthemum and Camellia Tall Vase, 2018

photography by Sylvain Deleu, courtesy of Adrian Sassoon, London

45 A Tall Wisteria Vase, 2018

moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with an interior of dancing sprigs,

moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with yellow gold leaf interior, H41.5 x D16.5 cm

H41.5 x D15.5 cm

46 A Wisteria and Sakura Vase, 2021 (detail) moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with an interior of dancing sprigs, H18.5 x D12.5 cm

47 A Kaze, Ume and Shira-Yuki-Geshi Bowl, 2021 moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with an interior of dancing sprigs, H16 x D25 cm

photography by Sylvain Deleu, courtesy of Adrian Sassoon, London

Angie Lewin b.1963

Angie Lewin was born in Cheshire and studied Fine Art Printmaking at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design before completing a postgraduate degree in printmaking at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. After working in London as an illustrator she studied Horticulture and then subsequently moved to Norfolk, which prompted a return to printmaking. Angie now lives and works in Speyside, Scotland.

Her still life practice often incorporate seedpods, grasses, flints and dried seaweed collected on walking and sketching trips.

I gather natural objects on my walks: seedheads, feathers, and lichen covered larch branches which I find along a forest track. From a sandy beach I’ll collect twists of bladderwrack, pebbles, and shards of ceramic. I surround myself with these memories of my time spent outdoors, and they have accumulated over the years in my studio and throughout the house. Feathers and seedheads are stored in pots and jars, pebbles, and driftwood fill shelves, mantlepieces, and window sills. Previous still life compositions are gradually deconstructed to create the next composition. Angie Lewin

48 Ranunculus and Nasturtium watercolour on paper

55 x 37.5 cm

49 Brunnera in Pheasant Cup watercolour on paper 34 x 25.5 cm

50 Hellebores and Magic City Jug watercolour on paper 41.5 x 29 cm

Christine McArthur b.1953

Christine McArthur was introduced to still life by her art teacher at school, Willie Rodger. She learned, initially, to look, but the most important lesson she took from Rodger was ‘be true to yourself’. As a student at Glasgow School of Art, McArthur preferred to work at home, the pictures she produced eventually convincing her tutors of its distinct advantages for her. It was an unusual privilege.

Her Diploma Show in 1975 broke the boundaries of a traditional final year display – no life studies, but a group of large painted drawings of interiors, always incorporating still life, which won her a Post-Diploma year and a Travelling Scholarship.

In 1976, working alongside her friend Helen Wilson, her display included three-dimensional structures, paintings, prints, pastels, fabrics and embroideries, an inter-disciplinary show not seen before. It may not at first have amused her tutors but, with Peter Blake as the external examiner, its originality, flair and control – the expansion and development of ideas seen in the earlier paintings – won her a Distinction and a further Travelling Scholarship, as did Helen.

McArthur has continued to push boundaries throughout her career, exploring each new medium she encountered, embracing new materials and finding new uses for the traditional, all working alongside each other in succeeding exhibitions.

Roger Billcliffe

52 Golden Plums: Whitebait watercolour and gouache on paper 22 x 30 cm

53 Seedpods from Miro’s Garden watercolour and gouache on paper 22 x 30 cm

54 Still Life for Carmen Miranda mixed media on board 76 x 76 cm

55 Nasturtiums gouache on board 23 x 23 cm

56 Ivan’s Pink Pink Poppies mixed media on board 76 x 76 cm

Rowan Paton b.1977

Rowan Paton is an award-winning painter based in Edinburgh, Scotland. A graduate of Yale University School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art, she explores the interplay between materiality and narrative in her work. Known for her bold yet nuanced approach to painting, her work has been exhibited widely across the UK. She has received numerous accolades, including the Edinburgh Printmakers Edition Award and the W. Gordon Smith Award. Her paintings are held in collections including Marchmont House and Dumfries House.

Specific objects around my home have always held my attention visually. I am a collector of clocks, chairs, old postcards, patterned fabric and ceramics. A natural extension to my admiration of these things is to draw them, paint them and print them. This body of work focusses on such objects scattered around my life that hold significance. Be they sentimentally precious items, an image of a wonderfully decorated cake or a bouquet of flowers from the garden. Rowan Paton

57 Foo Dogs, 2025

acrylic, mixed media and print collage on linen 142 x 142 cm

58 Apples and Cake, 2025 screenprint, collage and charcoal on paper 81 x 61 cm

59 Postcard Picnic, 2025 acrylic, mixed media and print collage on canavas 61 x 61 cm

60 Flowers in a Jug, 2025

acrylic, collage print and pencil on linen 142 x 142 cm

Ron Sandford b.1937

Born in Greenock, Ron Sandford studied at Glasgow School of Art in the late 1950s before continuing at the Royal College of Art, London, specialising in graphics. Renowned for his highly detailed architectural drawings, he worked with leading architects, including Norman Foster, on major commissions such as the Broadgate Centre and Thames Millennium Bridge. His career later took him to Hong Kong before he settled in Yell, Shetland, in 2002 with his wife, illustrator Meilo So. There, he immersed himself in documenting the landscape, people, and maritime traditions.

Drawing is Ron Sandford’s occupation, and he has been drawing everyday with absolute serious intent for at least 50 years. The son of a Greenock engineer who always had a pencil behind his ear, Ron studied at Glasgow School of Art before moving to London to teach at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art. In 2002, Ron moved to a secluded house in Yell, free from the shackles of commissions and teaching he has been able to completely immerse himself into drawing the landscape, people and culture of Shetland. Ron draws anything and everything and his work is a fusion between architectural precision and the free spirit of mark making that he has absorbed from the great tradition of Asian art.

Paul Bloomer, Shetland News, 2015

61 Pink Flowers

watercolour, pen and ink on paper

35.5 x 41.5 cm

Lara Scobie b.1967

Lara Scobie is a ceramic artist known for her striking interplay of form, pattern, and surface. She studied at Camberwell College of Arts in London before completing a postgraduate diploma at Edinburgh College of Art. Working primarily in Fine Porcelain Parian Clay, she employs inlay and sgraffito techniques to create bold, graphic patterns that explore balance, space, and texture.

With over 20 years of teaching experience at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Lara now works full-time as a ceramicist. Her current work predominantly explores the dynamic interplay between form and pattern, achieved through the cohesive integration of drawing, surface markmaking, and volume. She is equally interested in the space surrounding the pattern as in the hue and texture of the decorated surface.

Her ceramics have been exhibited internationally, including at Collect, Ceramic Art London, and the British Ceramics Biennial. She has received numerous accolades, such as the Premier Award at the Fletcher Challenge in New Zealand and an Honourable Mention at Mino International Ceramics, Japan. A fellow of the Craft Potters Association, her work is held in collections worldwide, including the McManus Galleries and Paisley Museum.

62 Concave/Convex Vessel I, II and III, 2024

fine porcelain parian

H19-20 x W12-14 x D12-14 cm

photograph by Shannon Tofts

Naoko Shibuya b.1975

63 After Rain, 2022 oil on canvas D50 cm

64 Yellow Harmony, 2022 oil on canvas D80 cm

Emily Sutton b.1983

65 Still Life with Buttercups, 2024 watercolour, ink and pencil on paper

28.5 x 39 cm

66 Still Life with Red Berries, 2024 watercolour, ink and pencil on paper

28.5 x 38 cm

Geoff Uglow b.1978

67 La Danse, 2020 oil on board

40 x 50 cm

68 Kristina, 2022 oil on board

71 x 98 cm

69 Mademoiselle Louis Leveque, 2019 oil on linen

153 x 123 cm

Geoff Uglow at The Scottish Gallery, 2024, photograph by Gabriela Silveira

Vintage Still Life

Barbara Balmer p98

Peter Collins p100

William Gillies p102

Sylvia Von Hartmann p104

John Houston p106

Audrey Johnson p108

Christine McArthur p110

David McClure p112

David Michie p114

Alberto Morrocco p116

Leon Morrocco p117

Denis Peploe p118

Margaret Pullee P120

Anne Redpath p122

Alberto Morrocco’s studio, 2007, photography by John McKenzie

Barbara Balmer (1929-2017)

70 Fruits from Manolo - Almuñécar, Andalucia, c.1985

watercolour and pencil on paper

70.5 x 54 cm

71 Little Still Life, c.1975

watercolour on paper

23.5 x 29 cm

Peter Collins (1935-2023)

Peter Collins was born in Inverness in 1935 into a distinguished medical family. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1952-58, enjoying post-diploma study and the prestigious Andrew Grant Scholarship. He subsequently taught at Duncan of Jordanson College of Art in Dundee and gained professional honours becoming an RSA and having work included in many public collections. His work is hard to characterise and includes several major portrait commissions, as well as work in frank acknowledgement of Picasso and Matisse. His style varied also from a superrealism deployed to depict an enigmatic, personal surrealism and broader techniques used as he saw fit for his subject.

72 Lemons, c.1969 oil on canvas

101.5 x 76 cm

William Gillies (1898-1973)

William Gillies was born in Haddington in 1898. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1924, after which he spent two years studying with Lhote in Paris. Upon returning to Scotland, he became a dominant figure of the Edinburgh School, teaching there for over forty years. He served as principal from 1961 to 1966 and led by example, encouraging his students to experiment while grounding their work in careful observation and disciplined drawing practice.

Still life was Gillies’ second subject. While landscape remained a largely instinctive response to the particular, his studio still life painting has a rich, sonorous, considered quality he shares with Braque. His cottage in Temple was filled with collected objects and many, especially the pots of his sister Emma, are familiar - repeatedly included in his compositions over the decades. His still-life paintings are études in composition, giving full rein to his powers as a designer, juggling with placement and pattern, balance and imbalance. The end product is often exquisite, revealing a sensibility of great delicacy.

73 Iceland Poppies, c.1959 oil on canvas

36 x 46 cm

Sylvia von Hartmann b.1942

74 The Artist with Hyacinths, c.2004

wax tempera and pigment on paper

26 x 36 cm

May 2012 wax tempera and pigment on paper

60 x 43 cm

John Houston (1930-2008)

John Houston was brought up in Buckhaven in Fife, where the ever-changing light over the Forth estuary and fields falling away to the shoreline were the backdrop to an idyllic childhood of horse fairs, golf and football. The landscape eventually inspired him to become a painter. Houston was drawn into the fold of Edinburgh College of Art and became as prodigious and natural a painter as his mentor William Gillies. He travelled widely, making exhibitions after trips to Europe, Japan and America, always with his fellow artist, wife and soul-mate Elizabeth Blackadder. He was an expressionist who could evoke the subtle, particular character of place, but his vision and ambition always looked outward. John Houston was represented by The Scottish Gallery from the late 1950s. He was ten times a solo exhibitor at The Edinburgh International Festival, between 1961 and his last show in 2008. Houston was honoured with a major retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2005. His work is held in numerous public collections. 76 Flowers at a Window, Summer,

Audrey Johnson (1919-2010)

77 Still Life in Jug, 1988 oil on board

23 x 18 cm

78 Cyclamen, 1985 oil on board

28 x 23 cm

# Audrey Johnson, Cyclamen, 1985, oil on board, 28 x 23 cm

Christine McArthur b.1953

Christine McArthur trained at the Glasgow School of Art from 1971-76 under David Donaldson and Leon Morrocco. From the mid-1980s she taught at Glasgow University and Glasgow School of Art while working and exhibiting full time. She was elected to the RGI and the RSW. McArthur inhabits an immersive, creative world. The passing seasons are observed, intertwined with imagery from her surroundings and familiar objects. She is a mixed media artist who specialises in oil, oil pastel, embroidery, acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink and collage.

Christine McArthur’s works are infused with unexpected delight. Conventional still lifes they are not, despite the featured jugs, flowers, fruit, chairs and tables. Instead of observation alone, her fresh imagination metamorphoses the familiar into dream images. These captivating pictures are inventive, richly detailed, and apparently spontaneous. Christopher Andreae

79 Still Life, c.1991 pastel on black paper

71 x 107.5 cm

David McClure (1926-1998)

80 Moon by Day, 1992 oil and collage on board

60 x 38.5 cm

81 Green Marble and White Jug, 1966 oil on canvas

51 x 76 cm

David Michie (1928-2015)

Born in San Raphael, France, David Michie was the son of renowned painter Anne Redpath. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art in 1953, he embarked on a travelling scholarship to Italy alongside fellow student John Houston. Michie went on to teach at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before a distinguished career at Edinburgh College of Art, where he became Head of the School of Drawing and Painting before retiring in 1990.

Michie’s extensive travels across Europe, the USA, and Australia shaped his artistic vision, and he was rarely without a sketchbook in hand. Gardens became a recurring motif in his work, drawn to the interplay of structured design and organic abundance. In Row of Flowers, 1974, Michie captures the vibrancy of a sunlit flower bed, where delicate pink and red blooms rise against a darkened hedge, with dappled light and shadow evoking the fleeting, ever-changing nature of the natural world. Michie’s work is held in esteemed public collections, including HM The King, the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums, and Aberdeen Art Galleries and Museums. Following his death in 2015, The Scottish Gallery hosted a Memorial Exhibition in 2017.

82 Row of Flowers, 1974 oil on canvas

39 x 34 cm

Alberto Morrocco (1917-1998)

83 Pumpkin and Cactus, 1985 oil on canvas

54.5 x 57 cm

84 Dried Artichokes, 1977 pastel on paper

66.5 x 51.5cm

Leon Morrocco b.1942

Denis Peploe (1914-1993)

85 Still Life with Violin, c.1955 oil on canvas

63.5 x 76 cm

86 The White Cloth, c.1953 oil on canvas

71 x 60 cm

Margaret Pullee (1910-2003)

Margaret Pullée (née Fisher) was born in New York in 1910 and was educated at Mayfield School in Putney, London. She pursued her artistic training at Chelsea School of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art from 1928 to 1932. During her time at the Royal College, she met her future husband, Edward Pullée, a fellow artist who would later become a leading figure in British art education.

Early in her career, Margaret undertook commissions for illustrations in Radio Times and designed posters for London Transport. Her work was characterised by a distinctive, naïve style that evocatively depicted everyday life in a dream-like manner.

From 1958, she began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and, in 1964, was elected a member of the New English Art Club (NEAC), where she remained a regular exhibitor until her death in 2003.

87 A Mixed Bunch oil on board

28.5 x 20.5 cm

Anne Redpath (1895-1965)

Anne Redpath (1895–1965) is one of Scotland’s most celebrated painters, renowned for her richly textured and vibrant still lifes. Born in Galashiels, she studied at Edinburgh College of Art before spending over a decade in France. Upon returning to Scotland in the 1930s, she settled in Hawick, where she reignited her artistic career, drawing inspiration from Post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Matisse.

Redpath’s still lifes are defined by her masterful use of colour and texture. She often depicted everyday objects—flowers, ceramics, and textiles—transforming them into striking compositions that balanced structure with expressive mark-making. Her later works, influenced by Abstract Expressionism, featured a freer, more dynamic application of paint, sometimes using a palette knife to create layered, impasto surfaces.

Her work was widely recognised during her lifetime, with successful exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery and Reid & Lefevre in London. A central figure in The Edinburgh School, Redpath’s artistic legacy continues to inspire.

88 Flowers in a French Jug, c.1950 oil on board

60 x 50.5 cm

89 Irises, c.1960 watercolour

48 x 54 cm

90 Flowers in a Jug, c.1964 oil on canvas

60 x 50 cm

Christine McArthur’s Studio, 2023

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition:

Still Life | The Beauty of the Ordinary 3 April - 3 May 2025

Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/stilllife

ISBN: 978 1 912900 97 8

Printed by PurePrint Group

Designed and produced by The Scottish Gallery

Front cover: Angie Lewin, Ranunculus and Nasturtium, watercolour on paper, 55 x 37.5 cm (cat.48) (detail)

Inside front cover: Rowan Paton, Foo Dogs, 2025, acrylic, mixed media and print collage on linen, 142 x 142 cm (cat.57) (detail)

Inside back cover: David Michie, Row of Flowers, 1974, oil on canvas, 39 x 34 cm (cat.82) (detail)

Back cover: Colin Brown, Sweet Iris, 2023, mixed media painting on board, 60 x 40 cm (cat.22) (detail)

The Scottish Gallery would like to thank the artists for their contribution to this exhibition and publication.