Four Women Artists

Four Women Artists 4 – 25 November 2015 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/fourwomenartists

Elizabeth Blackadder Victoria Crowe Alison McGill Emily Sutton

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Left: Victoria Crowe, Spring Shift, oil on linen, 127.5 x 114.5 cms, cat. 22 (detail)

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Introduction The focus in Edinburgh this autumn is women artists culminating in Modern Scottish Women – Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (7th November 2015 – 26th June 2016).

Our exhibition, Four Women Artists, is in fact a happy accident; these were artists who already had commitments to The Gallery and in the case of Victoria Crowe, we were offered a private collection this year which includes important works, some of which are featured in her most recent monograph by Duncan Macmillan. The Scottish Gallery has been a champion of women artists for decades, not to fulfil any quota or gender equality ‘policy’ – we have championed women because the work was valid. It is less than 100 years ago that women were allowed to vote. In the first half of the last century, art education was really only available to the upper classes and a career as an artist was routinely curtailed by marriage and children. Post WWI, radical social change took place and art education became more readily available to those from different classes and backgrounds but women artists still struggled to survive. The Gallery has always had to adapt to world events large or small and during WWII when male artists were serving their country, The Gallery represented women artists to help continue as a business as well as including work from the École de Paris and championing Polish

artists, who had escaped Europe via the Red Cross or the Polish army, which included Polish women artists. After the war women artists were simply a continuing part of the gallery and reflected the growing talent coming out of the art school system.

This year alone has seen us celebrate Anne Redpath, 50 years after her death and during the Festival we hosted a small exhibition, Joan Eardley In Context. The Scottish Gallery champions artists during their lifetimes and beyond. Edinburgh College of Art unites these four women artists, Elizabeth Blackadder graduated from the college in 1954 and was a dedicated teacher from 1962-1986. Victoria Crowe graduated from Kingston School of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art, London before being invited to teach drawing and painting at the college from 1968 until 1998. Elizabeth Blackadder and Victoria Crowe have each made a significant contribution to art and art education and they continue to be leading lights in their field, not for being women but by having an extraordinary vision and dedication to their art. Alison McGill and Emily Sutton are part of a younger generation who continue to fulfil their journey through art, and in very different ways represent an ongoing painting and graphic tradition.

Christina Jansen the scottish gallery

Left: Elizabeth Blackadder, Still Life with Gladioli, watercolour, 57 x 78.5 cms, cat. 4 (detail)

DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, rgi

Selected Works www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/elizabethblackadder

In her home on the south side of Edinburgh, Elizabeth Blackadder works quietly away, taking no heed of the awards and accolades with which she has been bestowed. For her the studio life, a life she shared with her husband and fellow painter John Houston, has been all consuming. The challenges of each artwork whether oil, watercolour or print are the sole focus of her attention. This modest collection of works on paper does not attempt to tell her story, or highlight any particular aspect of her oeuvre. Rather each work, from early still lifes to recent etchings, allows us to see a master in full command of her craft. Her favourite subjects are the things that surround her everyday life; souvenirs of foreign travels, flowers from the garden, the quirks of the boisterous Toby, Fred or Amalia or fresh fish from the market.

Born in Falkirk in 1931, Blackadder studied at The University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art. In 1954 she was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and travelled throughout southern Europe with fellow painter and her future husband John Houston. She travelled widely with Houston throughout her career, including several trips to Japan.

Blackadder first exhibited with The Scottish Gallery in 1961 and it is a relationship which continues to this day. She was elected a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1972, and was made a Royal Academician in 1976 (she was the first woman ever to be elected to both institutions). She has four honorary doctorates.

In 2001 she became the first woman in the 300 year history of the office to be made Her Majesty’s painter and limner in Scotland, and was later awarded a Damehood in 2003.

Public and private collections include Tate Britain, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Glasgow Museums and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

She was the subject of a major retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland in 2011 to celebrate her 80th birthday. She lives and works in Edinburgh.

Elizabeth Blackadder will be the subject of a major exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in August 2016.

Left: Elizabeth Blackadder’s studio, 2009

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1 Still Life with Fan and Bird Ornaments, 1986 watercolour, 44 x 113 cms signed and dated lower left provenance Private Collection, USA

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2 Still Life, Kyoto, 1985 watercolour, 19 x 22 cms signed and dated lower left exhibited Mercury Gallery, London, 1985

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3 Still Life with Coffee Pot, 1970 watercolour, 58 x 78 cms signed and dated lower right

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4 Still Life with Gladioli, 2014 watercolour, 57 x 78.5 cms signed lower right

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5 Leaves, Melon and Gourd, 2013 watercolour, 30 x 49 cms signed lower right exhibited Elizabeth Blackadder, The Nature of Things, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013, cat. 2

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6 Tulips, 2012 screenprint, 57 x 67 cms edition of 80 signed lower right

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7 Poppies, 2005 coloured etching, 59.5 x 76 cms edition of 60 signed lower right

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8 Crabs and Other Shells, 2011 watercolour, 29.5 x 40 cms signed lower left

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9 Seafood Medley, 2012 screenprint, 74 x 87 cms edition of 80 signed lower right

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10 Langoustine, 2012 etching, 34 x 35 cms edition of 50 signed lower right

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11 Toby, 2000 watercolour and charcoal, 50 x 56 cms signed lower left exhibited Elizabeth Blackadder, The Nature of Things, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013, cat. 4

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12 Abyssinian Cat, 2003

13 Fred in a Box, 2003

coloured etching, 36 x 30 cms

coloured etching, 30 x 36 cms

edition of 80

edition of 80

signed lower right

signed lower right

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14 Sienese Cat, 2003

15 Toby, 2011

etching, 30 x 36 cms

coloured etching, 21.5 x 30 cms

2nd proof edition

artist’s proof

signed lower left

signed lower right

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OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW

a private collection www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/victoriacrowe

Victoria Crowe is a painter with a rich inner life full of insight and poetry and an immense visual recall of experiences to draw upon. Sometimes she will actively seek a new stimulus, as with her recent residency as an invited artist at Dumfries House. Other times a suggestion, a meeting of minds and an invitation to share someone else’s passion will produce a remarkable response. This body of work, made in 2010-11 and including the extraordinary triptych, Changing Landscape, whose subject is sunlight through dense undergrowth and the pair of guardian dogs, Sentinel Guardian I and II, was inspired by visits to a country house in the borders whose owner had a passion for her work and essentially gave her free reign to make paintings for all parts of the interior. Sadly the house was not to be occupied and the work can now be sold and seen again as the individual paintings they are but still carrying the resonance of a place, now imagined.

Victoria Crowe studied at Kingston School of Art from 1961-65 and then at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1965-68.

At her postgraduate show she was invited by Sir Robin Philipson to teach at Edinburgh College of Art. Until 1998 she worked as a part-time lecturer in the School of Drawing and Painting while developing her own artistic practice.

For the last 17 years, she has been able to expand her artistic subjects so that as well as working in West Linton and Edinburgh she spends many months in the rich culture of Venice.

In 2004 Victoria was awarded an OBE for Services to Art and from 2004-07 was a senior visiting scholar at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. Her work is in many public and private collections worldwide.

The Scottish Gallery will host a Festival exhibition of Victoria Crowe in August 2018.

Left: Victoria Crowe’s studio, 2012; photograph: Kenneth Gray

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16 Events in the Garden, 2010-11 mixed media on conservation board, 81 x 120 cms signed lower right illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.168-9

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17 Marriage Piece, Italian Landscape, 2011 oil on linen, 61 x 122.5 cms signed lower left illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.171

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18 Red Arcadia, 2010-11 mixed media on conservation board, 81 x 120 cms signed lower right illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.166-7

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19 Night Illusion oil on board, 61 x 51 cms signed lower right

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20 Truth Comes Full Circle oil on linen, 76 x 101.5 cms signed lower right

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21 Night Emblem oil on conservation board, 81 x 83 cms signed lower left

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22 Spring Shift oil on linen, 127.5 x 114.5 cms signed lower right

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23 Numinous Garden, 2011 oil on linen, 114.5 x 127.5 cms signed lower right illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.157

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24 Sentinel Guardian I oil on linen, 112 x 56 cms signed lower right

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25 Sentinel Guardian II oil on linen, 112 x 56 cms signed lower right

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26 Enigmatic Head, 2011 oil on board, 27 x 32 cms signed lower right illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.171

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27 Head and Red Lily oil on board, 27 x 32 cms signed on verso

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28 Changing Landscape (triptych), 1983-84 oil on canvas, 122 x 66.5 cms each left: signed on verso; middle: signed lower right; right: signed on verso

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illustrated Victoria Crowe, Duncan Macmillan, 2012, p.54-5

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29 Clearing with Scots Pine oil on board, 58.5 x 51 cms signed lower left

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vista

www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/alisonmcgill

Vista is Alison’s sixth exhibition at The Scottish Gallery and is a dramatic return with a freshly invigorated palette and new inspiration. Her love of the landscape shines through in both new pastels and her encaustic painting, and she captures the rich colours of the earth and the contours of the land from both a conventional and an aerial perspective.

In 1995, whilst studying at the Edinburgh College of Art under the tuition of Victoria Crowe, Alison first experimented in mixing wax and paint to create heavily impastoed textures and painterly surfaces. The mastery of technique in allowing the wax to flow and evolve has been honed and developed in these recent works; excavating and melting the layers of the painting to reveal multiple layers of melded colours, to capture earth contours, rock strata and impressions of the land in its elemental state.

Inspiration for this new show comes from a variety of sources and viewpoints. East Lothian’s coastline, at John Muir Country Park and Tyninghame beach, are favourite haunts for Alison to sketch the shore; providing ever changing inspiration. A trip in a four-seater plane over the Lothians with her camera in hand, provided her with the bird’s eye view she incorporates into her work. The rolling hills of the Pentlands, the Lammermuirs and the estuaries flowing into the Firth of Forth are given a dramatic new twist when viewed from above. The picturesque landscape of the Scottish Borders and Highlands also appear in this collection of work, bringing a full range of seasons and elements.

She considers herself fortunate to live in Scotland with its beautiful scenic landscape and shores but is always keen to explore other subjects with a more diverse and contrasting terrain. She has travelled in Arizona and painted the Grand Canyon and the lush Hawaiian Islands after being awarded the Alexander Graham Munro Travel Award from the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society in 2004. A recent trip to the Canary Islands introduced her to a barren and hostile volcanic landscape which is recreated in her pastel drawings depicting the black volcanic rock contrasting against the stunning blue ocean and dramatic sunsets she experienced during her visit.

Alison prefers to leave the interpretation of her paintings up to the individual, saying ‘my subjects are only occasionally topographical as they are more about stimulating the eye through colours and textures and creating an impression of the landscape than they are about a particular location’.

Alison lives in Edinburgh and has been working in WASPS studios since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art after completing a Masters Degree in Painting in 1998. She has work in public collections including Anglo American, Bank of Scotland, the NHS Art Collection, Standard Life Insurance, Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Stirling. Works are in private collections throughout Britain, Europe and the USA.

Left: Alison McGill’s studio, 2015

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30 A Walk in the Hills, 2015 oil and wax on board, 122 x 135 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower right

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31 Edge of the Field, Winter, 2015 oil and wax on board, 61 x 61 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower right

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32 Daybreak, 2015 oil and wax on board, 51 x 55 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

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33 Into the Distance, 2015 oil and wax on board, 61 x 61 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

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34 Morning Light, 2015

35 Haar, 2015

oil and wax on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cms

oil and wax on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cms

signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

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36 Shoreline at Dusk, 2015 oil and wax on board, 38 x 50.5 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower right

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37 Summer Haze, 2015

38 Rolling Mist, 2015

oil and wax on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cms

oil and wax on board, 30.5 x 30.5 cms

signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

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39 Embers of Autumn, 2015 oil and wax on board, 38 x 38 cms signed verso and inscribed with initials lower left

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40 Coastal Walk, 2015

41 Lochside, 2015

charcoal pencil on paper, 15.5 x 23 cms

charcoal pencil on paper, 15.5 x 23 cms

signed verso

signed verso

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42 Towards the Eildons, 2015

43 View Looking East, 2015

charcoal pencil on paper, 14.5 x 23 cms

charcoal pencil on paper, 15 x 23 cms

signed verso

signed verso

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44 Spring Day, 2015

45 Hilltop View I, 2015

pastel, 16 x 23.5 cms

pastel, 17 x 23 cms

signed verso

signed verso

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46 Into the Hills, 2015

47 Sunset, 2015

pastel, 17 x 23 cms

pastel, 16 x 23.5 cms

signed verso

signed verso

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From 104 to Normandy www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/emilysutton

Emily Sutton was born in North Yorkshire and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Rhode Island School of Design. Since graduating in 2008, Emily’s art works, sculptures and designs have been much sought-after. She had a major solo exhibition, Town & Country, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park earlier this year.

“My work incorporates a love of pattern and detail and is strongly influenced by the landscape and creatures of my surroundings in the Yorkshire countryside, as well as all kinds of weird and wonderful objects found in museums and antique shops. A visit to the American Folk Art Museum in New York inspired an ongoing interest in folk art of all kinds, and I am also influenced by 20th century illustrators such as Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious, and the American lithographed children’s books of a similar era.”

Her love of observational drawing and eye for detail sees her transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and celebrate beauty in everyday objects and scenes. For this exhibition, the focus is on the domestic realm; carefully assembled still lifes from her home in York and a trip to Normandy, drawing inspiration from the local shop fronts and observed interiors.

Her own home in York is a treasure trove, no surface is clear from personal relics found in antique shops, salvage yards or local car boot sales – these accumulated objects provide Emily with a constant source of inspiration which is both intimate and universal. The four large monochrome drawings for example, provide us with a fascinating visual insight of her home and studio and they also highlight her skill as a master draftsman; Emily never fails to provide us with new twists in her seemingly endless artistic vocabulary.

The magical spin Emily bestows on the world has seen her much in demand as an illustrator. Emily illustrated the children’s classic Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day, for the V&A, which is now in its second edition. She has also worked with Faber & Faber, Penguin Random House and Walker Books.

The Gallery is hosting a book signing with Emily Sutton and a collection of her illustrated books, including the newly released ‘The Christmas Eve Tree’ on Saturday 21st November from 11.30am – 1pm.

Left: Emily Sutton’s Garden Room, 2015

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48 The Garden Room at 104, 2015 watercolour, 76 x 56 cms signed and dated lower left

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49 Front Room at 104, 2015 pencil, 84 x 59.5 cms signed and dated lower right

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50 The White Cabinet, 2015 pencil, 76 x 44 cms signed and dated lower right

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51 Studio Desk, 2015 pencil, 84 x 59.5 cms signed and dated lower right

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52 Still Life with Coral Teacup, 2015 watercolour, 22 x 27 cms signed and dated lower right

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53 Recettes, 2015 watercolour, 28.5 x 31 cms signed and dated lower right

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54 Souvenirs from Normandy, 2015 watercolour, 19 x 23 cms signed and dated lower right

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55 Le Temps des Cerises, Honfleur, 2015 watercolour, 29.5 x 42 cms signed and dated lower right

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56 Painted House, Normandy, 2015 watercolour, 29.5 x 42 cms signed and dated lower right

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57 Cap Oceane, Trouville, 2015 watercolour, 29.5 x 42 cms signed and dated lower right

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58 Coiffeur Barbier, Normandy, 2015 watercolour, 42 x 29.5 cms signed and dated lower right

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59 Cèpes, Honfleur, 2015 watercolour, 29.5 x 42 cms signed and dated lower left

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60 Brocante, Honfleur, 2015 watercolour, 29.5 x 42 cms signed and dated lower right

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61 Still Life with Garden Herbs, 2015 watercolour, 24.5 x 31 cms signed and dated lower right

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62 First Roses, 2015 watercolour, 34 x 30 cms signed and dated lower right

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Victoria Crowe, Large Tree Group, Winter, 2014 etching and screenprint, 50.5 x 71 cms, edition of 250

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Prints Available

by Women Artists Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Elizabeth Blackadder Victoria Crowe Linda Farquharson Angie Lewin Alison McGill Barbara Rae Emily Sutton Frances Walker Please contact the gallery for more information mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk • 0131 558 1200 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/printmakers

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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition four women artists 4 – 25 November 2015 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/fourwomenartists ISBN: 978-1-910267-26-4 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography of Elizabeth Blackadder and Victoria Crowe by William Van Esland Printed by Barr Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk

Right: Emily Sutton, Studio Desk, pencil, 84 x 59.5 cms, cat. 51 (detail)