50
Years:
Drawing & Thinking
Victoria Crowe
Victoria Crowe 50 Years: Drawing & Thinking 28 August – 28 September 2019
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Foreword Above all, Victoria Crowe loved to draw, which, she says, ‘began a conversation with myself, which always stayed as a very important thing’. Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.31
2019 marks another significant moment in the career of Victoria Crowe with a major retrospective 50 Years of Painting at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, following shortly after her Scottish National Portrait Gallery exhibition Beyond Likeness in 2018. The Scottish Gallery has been part of the artist’s life since 1970; our role has been to provide a platform for her art and it has been an enduring, evolving relationship. The challenge for The Gallery in this pivotal year was to find a way to celebrate the work of Victoria Crowe with a complementary exhibition alongside her retrospective. The initial thoughts were to recreate aspects of her studio in The Gallery and give insight into her studio life: portraiture, print making, still life, tapestry and recent residencies. In early spring, we were invited to her home to collect ‘a few things’. After a delicious lunch in the kitchen at West Linton we came upstairs to the studio and Vicky handed over a portfolio of drawings and other work on paper. It was an extraordinary act of trust and generosity: these were works going back to the Sixties and covering most aspects of her life as an artist, which in short is also her life. Victoria had come to the conclusion that
the exhibition would be about Drawing & Thinking; the essence of what she does. In the folio were works relating to major paintings: essential reference works, colour notes, compositional studies and the starting points for new directions. It felt like we had been given a private diary. Victoria Crowe has always recognised that letting go is part of the creative process. In other words, Victoria is allowing these individual works of art to have a life beyond the memory of its making, which is the artist’s gift to the world. We also recognised in compiling this special publication, coming so close after all the work and creativity around the retrospective at the City Art Centre, how much her family have contributed to her extraordinary career. Kenneth Gray, her son-in-law, as designer and photographer; Gemma her daughter for her recollections and insights; and her husband Michael Walton, who has shared each day of the past fifty years, nurturing and protecting and whose chronicle of their life in art is invaluable. All are very present in this personal publication and exhibition and we offer our thanks. The Scottish Gallery
Opposite: Coral Bark Maple (working title), a painting in progress, 2019 (detail) 3
Drawing & Thinking Whenever I get the chance to see a large exhibition of an artist’s work, where drawings and sketchbooks are present, that’s the area I head to first. There the germ of the artist’s thought processes are laid bare; roots of ideas and how they inform and develop, feeding into a larger body of work is fascinating. For me, the first instinct when thinking about a new artwork, is to go to a sketchbook, my visual diary, which already contains other thoughts and references and is a comfortable and creative space in which to work. As soon as I open a sketchbook or take a pencil to draw, I am making a link with an internal response generated by the external world… sometimes the drawing is swift, trying to capture the intense physical image, its components and its composition, sometimes more rambling, trying to get somewhere. I note essentials using words too, which can pin down the direction I want the work to go in. There’s an energy to this initial free drawing and thinking, an immediate response which is highly personal, and gives me insight into how to proceed (a world away from photographic references which never seem to give me the information I am looking for). Many of these starting points then become much more analytical drawings and which work hard to give me specific information. I use drawings or watercolour studies to identify the structure of an element in a painting. The activity of trying to analyse, for example, the complexity of the coral maple branches was about several elements – the new growth pattern, the branching structure, the overlapping of one on the other and the whole gestalt of how it was. The particularity of structure is something very important to me, I can carry colour and tone fairly well
in my mind’s eye, but I need to understand the formal arrangement of the object. Once I completed that drawing of the maple branches, I felt I ‘knew’ the subject and that was a great source for continuing the painting (which was waiting ready formed in my mind but sitting only half realised on the canvas) (p.2). This seems to be a fairly usual procedure, behind the paintings of trees, landscapes, plant and flower form, and Venetian vistas, lurk some analytical, informative drawings! In 1969 I saw a wonderful show, Frescoes from Florence, at the Hayward Gallery in London, designed by Carlo Scarpa. This inspiring exhibition removed frescoes and sinopia from their context, displaying them like sculptural forms. Rich subject matter was discerned amid worn and distressed surfaces. I made many drawings and watercolours looking at that idea, such as Fresco Landscape (Pentlands) (cat. 3). Whenever I travel in Italy, church interiors, the frescoes, mosaics, and statuary are all rich sources of sketchbook investigations. I often draw the layers of worn imagery, where gold leaf is rubbed away to reveal gesso, or part of a figure is just discernible against the flaking background. I have often drawn partly restored frescoes; modern restoration techniques build the repainted areas in tiny dashes of colour so, close to, it is never confused with original imagery, and like pointillism, mixes ‘on the eye’ from a distance. I like the idea of illusion combined with a sharp reminder of the essentially abstract nature of the painted surface which is a subtext of much of my thinking about my own paintings. Victoria Crowe June 2019
Right: Victoria Crowe in her studio, West Linton, 2012; photograph by Kenneth Gray 4
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From a Child’s Eye My grandmother Rosina lived at Knapton Hall and met my grandfather, George Crowe who was a journeyman painter and decorator. They eloped (much to family disapproval and casting off!) and settled in Kingston where George set up a painting and decorating business. They had six children. Rosina worked on the embroidery (opposite) of her remembered home during the last few years of her life. She died in 1939. The mixed media embroidery, which hangs in our home in West Linton has so much detail, I can see the addition of some sort of cellophane in the windows and the duck pond, little frosted beads in the hedges, and a whole lot of ‘loose, free standing’ bits of embroidery which seem almost collaged on to indicate form. For me, as a post-war child, this was one of the most important things in our house, it is full of description, rich colour and amazing detail (find the spiders in the ivy, see the dew drops in the hedges, look how the duck drinks from the pond, how the fresh hay spills from the kennels). As it was where my grandmother lived, there was the added imagining for me of reversing the whole scene, how would I feel looking out of those windows with their arched tops at the farmyard beyond. It’s a little treasure! An aside: she was a great romancer, claiming kinship with G.F. Watts the painter, and William Cowper the poet (not proved). Stories of her strong, rather exotic personality, (high church and certainly wealthier than my grandad!) brought her vividly to life for me and the names of her six children gives you a bit of an insight: Cecil Christian, Lawrence Basil, Marjorie May, Esme Doris, Philip Farrands (my father), and Lorna Elizabeth.
Rosina Mary Watts, b.1866 at Knapton, Norfolk
Victoria Crowe, c.1948, Kingston, Surrey
Victoria Crowe June 2019 Knapton Hall, Norfolk 6
Rosina Mary Watts, Knapton Hall, c.1935, needlepoint and mixed media, 48 x 60 cm 7
The Beginning Victoria Crowe found the reality of life, harsh and idyllic by turn, around her new home in the Pentlands at Kittleyknowe, to be the roots of her development in Scotland, lending her the confidence and fortitude to develop into the great painter she is today. She came first in 1970, happier to commute into Edinburgh College of Art after moving from London, headhunted by Robin Philipson to the School of Drawing and Painting; in the country she was a different person. Her neighbour Jenny Armstrong was a hill sheep farmer, in an environment where being neighbours meant something, a kinship in times of adversity, sharing in times of plenty. The winter fence, hencoop and kennel, the view out from the warm comfort of a room with a coal fire, the twilight shape of a familiar landmark, all became fit subjects, little pieces creating a world of hardship shared and a landscape fully inhabited. Guy Peploe
Some of the landscapes and drawings at Kittleyknowe were of course trying to get to grips with an enormously changed environment for me after London. The drama of the snow-covered Pentlands, the winter moon still up as I waited for the early bus into Edinburgh to teach, have stayed with me for 50 years. I remember painting the hills as the watercolour started to freeze… that experience, that really ‘being there’ is incomparable, the truth of the events seep into the work. I wasn’t just thinking about the topography in those early drawings though; visually it was useful to lose the horizon and thus flatten the picture plane. As a student I had admired the early works of Rosoman, Victor Pasmore and the flattened planes of early Renaissance painting and constructivism. The teaching of Prunella Clough underlined for me the abstract nature and the sense of ‘object’ of a piece of art, so the drawings and thoughts about the hills investigated that too. Victoria Crowe July 2019 In 1973, there seemed few women artists who fulfilled both aspects of their lives. There was always this terrible feeling, if I went down this road of getting married and having a child, would I be diluting, giving up, all these other things. In a way, Jenny was quite a supportive person. She never said to me, “You can do it”, but it was through the example of how she approached her life that I thought, “Yes, this is going to be all right”. Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.34
Opposite: Victoria Crowe, c.1972; photograph by Michael Walton 8
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1 Figure Group, 1962–63 oil and pencil on paper, 15 x 17.5 cm 10
2 Life Room, Kingston School of Art, 1962–63 oil on paper, 30 x 19 cm 11
3 Fresco Landscape (Pentlands), 1969–70 mixed media on paper, 34 x 22.5 cm 12
When I’m painting, all I’m really thinking about are the abstract qualities within the work – the interplay of transparent and opaque paint, the drama of saturated or muted colour and an overall tonal control. Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.32
4 Figure Composition of Stage Set, 1970–71 mixed media on paper, 19 x 26.5 cm 13
5 Study for Beech Tree, 1970 mixed media on paper, 19 x 20.5 cm
6 Sheds, Fences, Kittleyknowe, 1970–72 mixed media on paper, 12.5 x 13.5 cm 14
7 Sunlit Figure and Fences, 1976 ink and watercolour on Japanese paper, 38 x 27 cm 15
Chicken Hut I was painted in 1973. Our neighbour Jenny Armstrong was usually surrounded by dogs, sheep and chickens. Jenny kept chickens at the back of her cottage where a collection of aged kennels, huts, sheds and coops resided. The care and attention of the mother hen to her chicks is reflected in the fact that subject and artist are both perhaps broody. Ben, our first child, was born in 1973.
I had started collecting Staffordshire figures (both rural and religious) and underglaze blue transfer printed chinoiserie earthenware, with the odd slip into similar porcelain. They all found a home in a bowfronted cabinet, homemade plate rack, and other available places! This still life contains a small late 18th century earthenware figure, most likely a prize at a fair, and a cow creamer of a similar date, probably of Yorkshire or Scottish manufacture. Finally, a tiny Worcester coffee cup circa 1710–20. Cow Still Life II is an experimental work. It is the first of Victoria’s paintings with a black ground, trying to see how the simply arranged conversation of ceramics become thrown into sharp focus, defined space and creates great vibrancy of colour, in contrast to the dark behind the picture plane. It neatly sums up this period at Kittleyknowe, deeply involved in rural life, setting up home – with a family on the way. Michael Walton MBE
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8 Chicken Hut I, 1973 oil on board, 16.5 x 20.5 cm
9 Cow Still Life II, 1973 oil on board, 18 x 20.25 cm 17
Kittleyknowe was all I knew until the age of 14 and I clearly remember standing by the side of the house on the day we were moving, seeing almost exactly this view, wishing we didn’t have to go. It was an incredible place to grow up, surrounded by interesting characters, the magic of nature and field upon field of landscape to explore. It was ever-changing and utterly dependent on the weather; from the bitter winters when snowdrifts blocked us from the outside world, to the lambing season where I played my part in seeing the next generation of sheep take to the hills opposite our house. Although isolated, it always felt enough. It was a haven of sorts: remote, secret, displaced yet safe and secure, private and
10 Cottage with Bonfire, c.1975 oil on canvas, 46 x 51 cm 18
miles away from the real world. But nothing is forever and when those characterful neighbours passed and others arrived, the fragility of what had been was revealed. Kittleyknowe was no longer the place it had been, my childhood memories were now just that and no amount of longing could take me back to those days where my breath froze on my hair in the winter or we saw Jenny as a distant figure on the fields. Every one of mum’s paintings from that time takes me right back there, evoking the richest and warmest of remembrances. Gemma Gray July 2019
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11 Tom Wickham’s Barns with Snow Drifts, early 1970s oil on paper, 21.5 x 35 cm
12 Interior of Jenny's Cottage, 1981 mixed media on paper, 25.5 x 35 cm 20
In its austerity and its poverty in material things, Jenny Armstrong’s life was a little like that of a medieval saint or hermit. For her, however, this was simply practical and not a sacrifice made in the name of the doubtful rewards of religion, though she went to the Kirk (at least in winter, in summer hers was the Kirk of the fields). It was balanced, too, by the richness of her engagement with practical things and the natural world that was their frame. It is easy to see how such a person could represent an echo for Victoria in both her own early religious experience and her romantic Tolstoyan ideas of the land, its people and the great continuities they shared. Victoria Crowe by Duncan Macmillan, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012, p.39
13 Study for December 25th, 1980–81 watercolour, 23 x 28 cm 21
14 Back Garden, Kittleyknowe, 1984 pencil and pastel on paper, 29.5 x 20.5 cm 22
15 Lambing Studies II, c.1985 pencil and watercolour on paper, 21 x 29 cm
16 Lambing Studies I, c.1985 pencil and watercolour on paper, 21 x 29 cm 23
17 Flowers in a Foggy Window (Monksview Cottage), c.1977 mixed media, 34.5 x 28 cm 24
18 Reclining Nude, 1977 oil on board, 33 x 48 cm 25
19 Entrance to the Forest, 1981 etching and mixed media, 35 x 45.5 cm edition of 20 26
My first collaboration in printmaking was with Shelia MacFarlane at Kirktower House. She was a pupil of Hayter’s and the plate for the editioned etching became the experiment for a viscosity print. Three colours printed using only one plate by virtue of hard and soft rollers and difference in oiliness of the ink. Victoria Crowe July 2019
20 Forest and Garden, Sun Rising Above the Mist, 1981 etching and mixed media, 34.5 x 45.5 cm unique print 27
Eilean Iarmain is situated in the south of Skye on the west coast of Scotland. This tempered, tonal study captures the spirit of the place, looking over the Sound of Sleat with the hills of Knoydart beyond.
21 Eilean Iarmain, early 1990’s watercolour, 17.5 x 47 cm 28
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The making of Large Tree Group tapestry at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 2013
Victoria Crowe painted Large Tree Group in 1975. It is an iconic work from A Shepherd’s Life series. The etching and screenprint made in 2014 pays homage to the impact and continuing memory of Jenny Armstrong. Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh who celebrated their centenary in 2012, commissioned a large-scale tapestry of Large Tree Group which was unveiled in 2013 in the exhibition Fleece to Fibre: The Making of The Large Tree Group Tapestry during the Edinburgh International Festival. The tapestry was subsequently acquired for the permanent collection of National Museums Scotland. 30
22 Large Tree Group, Winter, 2014 screenprint and etching, 51 x 71 cm edition of 250 31
Gae far’er up the burn to Habbie’s How, Where a’ the sweets o’ spring and summer grow: There ’tween twa birks, out ower a little lin, The water fa’s and maks a singin’ din; A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass, Kisses, wi’ easy whirls, the bord’ring grass. extract from The Gentle Shepherd, 1725, by Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay (1686–1758) based his famous poem on the countryside around Newhall Estate where Kittleyknowe is located. 32
Opposite page: Jenny Armstrong at Kittleyknowe, 1968 Right: Jenny Armstrong with her dogs, 1968 Far right: Gateway, 1976, oil on board, 24 x 29 cm, private collection
Remembering Kittleyknowe Imagine, for a moment, leaving London in 1968 when parking meters were just being installed and heading north, where only one of us had been before, to arrive in the middle of real countryside. When driving into Edinburgh, you could find you were the only vehicle on the road. This was Kittleyknowe (a remote hamlet in the Scottish Borders close to Carlops), the inspiration behind Victoria’s A Shepherd’s Life, Paintings of Jenny Armstrong. The weather at Kittleyknowe needs a little explanation regarding its relationship to ‘normal weather’! At 1,000 feet up, around 17 miles south of Edinburgh, it lies on open peat moorland, between the Pentland Hills and the Moorfoots. In winter, it was extreme: deep, deep snow (fence posts disappeared); extremely cold (heating spark plugs under the grill); and digging the car out to get into Edinburgh for work was a frequent occurrence, making one grateful for shovels and crank handles. I had a beard at the time and, walking down the road, ice crystals froze around your face; something only seen previously in Dr. Zhivago. The ground could become like permafrost from Christmas to beyond Easter; snow came once in June. The children made igloos and deep snow allowed us to throw them backwards off our
high stone wall into the snow drifts below, leaving only child-shaped dents. Our neighbour Jenny Armstrong was usually surrounded by dogs, sheep and chickens. The latter she kept in two locations, which were a short walk away, past the trees in Large Tree Group, 1975 (collection: National Galleries of Scotland) were kept next to a small burn so that their water could be topped up. The second location was at the back of her cottage where collections of aged kennels, huts, sheds and coops resided. These were most likely seen as pets and being brought on to join the older, hardier hens (far away) which Jenny relied on for her eggs. Our cottage, ‘Monksview’, and Jenny Armstrong’s, ‘Monk’s Cottage’, were further along the track to the right. At the top of the road was an assemblage of ruinous barns that belonged to Tom Wickham (see Tom Wickham’s Barns in the City Art Centre retrospective). ‘Monksview’ was originally the gamekeeper’s cottage for the Newhall Estate and ‘Monk’s Cottage’ the kennel man’s, hence the large hard standing to the front of the cottage. Michael Walton MBE 33
Jenny Armstrong’s Cottage Jenny does not appear in this painting but is present by virtue of her absence. For those who knew it, this could be nowhere else but the interior of Jenny Armstrong’s cottage. It is an interior, but this has to be set in context – not quite how we think of an interior, with warmth and comfort, but with snow able to blow in through chinks and gaps around the front door and pipes liable to freeze (even when the fire was on), it was more of a halfway house between outside and inside. The key to this painting is the apple on the edge of the sideboard, the reward to the postman for bringing a by now infirm Jenny her ‘messages’ or groceries. The postman was an important contact with the outside world; he always had a moment to put a new log or coals on the fire and rake it back to life. (Interestingly, French postmen in country districts have as part of their job the same role offering company, contact and practical help.) Jenny always had bananas going dark and ripe with black patches and speckles on them. Messages is a highly significant painting of that period of Crowe’s work; the sideboard also appears in Last Portrait of Jenny Armstrong (collection: City Art Centre, Edinburgh) and in several of the charcoal drawings acquired by The National Galleries of Scotland. Also of interest in the painting are the photographs on the sideboard and the appearance of the cover on Jenny’s bed at bottom-left, dating it to the period when Jenny was out of hospital and slept in the same room as ‘the range’ for warmth and comfort. The patterned 1920s floor covering was the ideal surface for dogs, sheep and hens running in and out; the wallpaper suggests very clearly, like the thinning of the curtains, that they had been there some time. The wall surface was often slightly damp so the paper was marked and stained and slightly peeling. The left hand photograph is of ‘The Fraser Boy’, a young man holding a dog. In the 1950s/60s he lived with his mother and father, shown in the photograph on the right, at the Gate Cottage. In the centre are images of three of Jenny’s working dogs: The Old Laddie, Fly and one long gone by the time we arrived. In the lower part of the sideboard you can see The Peeblesshire News, no doubt about to be used to light the fire, and a collection of kindlers and split logs. In the left-hand glass panel, the pane is reflecting light from the other, brighter side of the room.
23 Messages, 1986–87 oil on board, 122 x 72.5 cm Private collection 34
Michael Walton MBE
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New Directions Painting is a journey into the unknown, a paradigm for life’s journey, but for the artist each work might be a reference point for a particular, new direction; something: a mark, a colour relationship, the conjunction of complementary intellectual ideas (interior exterior), will suggest the way forward. Guy Peploe
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In 1990, Victoria Crowe and her family moved from Kittleyknowe to West Linton and so began a new chapter in her art. Advent Assembly is a complex still life composition. The assemblage of objects acts as memento mori: a life lived, recalled by the ephemera and trophies of its passage. The advent calendar doors are neither open nor closed; there is a small picture to the far right which might be Kittleyknowe in Winter and another picture on the left is possibly Monk’s Cottage, usually painted from the inside looking out. The little mirror, which casts out a blue light, gives us a glimpse into another, unknown world.
I am often asked if I can draw, paint, create like mum and the short answer is no! I, like many who view her work, have always marvelled at how on earth the thoughts, ideas, influences and visual stimuli she experiences can possibly manifest into these complex, ethereal, thought-provoking works. There is both a feeling of awe and intimidation when being so close to an artist because they have this incredible power that defies categorisation, that seems so otherworldly and unachievable to others – a real power they hold over the viewer. Her studio since I was a child has been this exceptional room, smelling of turps and firewood, where mementos and feathers, dead moths and strips of patterned paper have been collated and studied. Within these specific works, I can see items I know from travels to Egypt, Greece and Amsterdam; I see my grandfather and a stereograph we would view at Christmas; I see the plastic tulips that remind me of Jenny; the silk kimono so exotic and somehow jarring with the trinkets and knickknacks. It is a privilege to have this insider knowledge because as viewers we are always trying to get behind the story, trying to understand how and why these items appear together, whether there is some renaissance reference we are missing or symbolism we think we should be party to. Gemma Gray July 2019
24 Advent Assembly, 1991 mixed media, 80 x 99 cm 38
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It is the still intensity, the sense of the artist’s own meditative attention, which arrests us. Her paintings require our contemplation. Lyrical incantations, they whisper their secrets, hint at hidden meanings, offer glimpse of their past. Lynn Green essay, Victoria Crowe, New Work, The Scottish Gallery, 2004
25 Still Life, c.1992 pen and wash drawing, 55.5 x 41 cm 40
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26 Inferno Fresco, Santa Maria Novella, 1992 watercolour on paper, 13 x 17 cm 42
27 Italian Reflection, 1992 silkscreen print, 46.5 x 23 cm unique print 43
28 Light Across Fields, San Gimignano, 1992 watercolour, 25 x 34 cm 44
29 First Day, Siena, 1992 watercolour, 25.5 x 34.5 cm 45
Drawing & Thinking When I was working with the Artists for Nature conservation groups during the 90s in Poland, Extremadura, and India, I had the opportunity to learn so much about the wider natural world and the cultural needs linked to conservation. In Poland, where we were looking at the ecologically valuable wetlands in the north east of the country, I drew the rural landscape and smallholdings of the marshes. I had the opportunity to make a tribute to Dürer’s Great Piece of Turf, that wonderfully seen painting of grasses, when I worked on a group of horsetail and orchid (cat. 30). There was an intensity about producing a complete watercolour ‘in the field’ (as my naturalist friends would say) and the huge reward of drawing the unconventional and often unnoticed beauty of low-growing humble plants like the bog bean glowing against the black water beneath it (cat. 31). In Extremadura, with the landscape of the sierras and cork-oak dehesa, my drawings and thoughts were more about heat and cool shadow, but also about the Catholic and conquistador impact. I drew many black Madonnas and large studies of ‘Our Lady’s Thistle’ growing in huge clumps (its exotic patterning supposedly the dribble marks of the Blessed Virgin Mary breast milk spilt on the land). India saw me drawing during
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the 18-hour train journey from Delhi, urban pollution and poverty changing to painted shrines, enormous cauliflowers under yellow tarpaulin, market villages and, finally, jungle – the hidden tiger, marks of sloth bear claws on the trees and everywhere, Hindu iconography. I drew painted shrines and colour-washed, decorated temples. The red handprints reminded me of the prehistoric handprints in cave paintings; a long stretch of time marked by human passing (cat. 34). The markets of Manpur and Tala were full of colour and unfamiliar iconography, brightness and shadow, glitter and tawdry items among shrine figures and Hindu calligraphy (cat. 35). The large watercolour of a discarded snakeskin (cat. 32) near our camp was an attempt to examine the translucency and structure of this beautiful object; none of this is ever lost, these wide-ranging drawings and new images and thoughts stay as a visual bank to support things I may echo years later. Some will simply remain as reminders of intense experience and memory. Victoria Crowe July 2019
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30 Horsetails, Mosses and Orchids, 1992 watercolour on paper, 45 x 35.5 cm 48
31 Menyanthes Trifoliata Bogbean, 1992 watercolour, 32 x 24 cm 49
32 Snake Skin, 1997 watercolour, 35.5 x 45.5 cm 50
33 Lagoon Mapping, 2004 watercolour, ink and pencil, 75 x 55 cm 51
34 Indian Temple Wall, 1997 watercolour and collage, 37.5 x 57 cm 52
35 Vision and Memory, India, 1997 mixed media, 60 x 95 cm 53
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Loss & Remembrance I’ll never be afraid again. I can attack a canvas: throw in colour, contrast, and compositions I never dreamed of before. I feel I’ve gone through some kind of doorway with this work and am in a place I’ve never been before. Victoria Crowe, 1995
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The mirror gives us two chances to understand, to see but it can also be taken to imply that the visible world may simply be a part of a great illusion or that we can only see beyond matter to the world of the spirit, as through a glass darkly. Mary Sarah on Victoria Crowe’s work
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36 Mocenigo Mirror, Lost Empire, 2004 pencil and mixed media, 28.5 x 21 cm 57
During my sabbatical term in 1992, I made my first study trip to Italy. I was there during the Easter period, and noted the huge contrasts between the solemnity of Holy Week and the explosion of celebration on Easter Sunday. In Florence on Good Friday, the Cappella dei Principi, an octagonal, marbled mausoleum, was full of unlit white candles and white flowers of hydrangea and orange blossom against the dark marble walls. In contrast, Siena was full of people celebrating resurrection, waving olive and palm branches, while members of the Contrade, some on horseback and all in medieval costume with striped and quartered leggings, gold brocade‌ proclaimed Easter (cat. 29). The idea of a vigil, a period of contemplation and focus, between these two states of mind, despair and waiting, to joy, is common in Christian celebrations at Christmas and Easter, and the painting Vigil in Siena was an attempt to explore that idea. I wanted to capture something of the expectancy, the mystery, and powerful sensations that any vigil would provoke, something beyond the flowers and the carved head. Victoria Crowe July 2019
37 Vigil in Siena, 1995 oil on board, 75 x 90 cm 58
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This was the first screen print I ever made. It was a co-publication with the Edinburgh Printmakers, and I worked with Carol Robertson. Due to her technical expertise, this extremely complex image was finally completed after many separate screens of colour were printed on the work. Each colour separation was drawn or painted on to acetate sheets before being transferred on to the silk screen. It’s a water-based screen print, so many of the colour separations could be as delicate or washy and transparent as watercolour itself. The image uses the familiar interior of Jenny’s cottage – we had moved away from Kittleyknowe four years earlier, so it was about remembering that time, and our own changed circumstances and there are many objects which relate to my family history. Victoria Crowe July 2019
38 Interior with Passing Figure, c.1995 silkscreen print, 56 x 103.5 cm edition of 32 60
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39 Silvered Reflection, Venetian Mirror, 1997 silver leaf and collage, 30.5 x 24.5 cm 62
40 The Existence of Dreaming, c.1997 watercolour with acrylic, 45.5 x 77 cm 63
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Plant Memory
I begin with acute observation. Then imagination and association transform objective reality into a complex personal dialogue, evolve layers of meaning elaborated by personal memories, set against the vastness of historical time. Victoria Crowe
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41 Fossil Plant Studies – Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, 2006 mixed media on open sketchbook, 30 x 81 cm 66
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42 Artichokes, 2012 watercolour, 16 x 29.5 cm 68
43 Fossil Plants, c.2012 intaglio and etching, 24 x 33 cm unique print 69
44 Green Quinces (Painted in Venice), 2017 acrylic, 30 x 37 cm
45 Agapanthus Drawing, 2015 shellac ink on paper, 36 x 51 cm 70
46 Agapanthus and Tree View, c.2012 acrylic and pencil on paper, 45 x 20 cm 71
The sun that rises Upon one earth Sets on another. Swiftly the flowers Are waxing and waning, The tall yellow iris Unfolds its corolla As primroses wither, Scrolls of fern Unrolls and midges Dance for an hour In the evening air, The brown moth From its pupa emerges And the lark’s bones Fall apart in the grass Kathleen Raine, Collected Poems 1935–1980, Allen & Unwin, 1981
47 Lilium Regale, 2006 pencil on handmade Japanese paper, 102 x 51 cm 72
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48 White Nights of a Northern Summer, 2018 oil on linen, 81 x 76 cm 74
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49 Night Flight, 1999 mixed media, 18.5 x 19 cm
50 Dragonfly Drawing, c.1998 mixed media, 21 x 29.5 cm 76
51 Fragile Creatures, 2005 pencil and watercolour on paper, 40.5 x 19.5 cm 77
52 Drawn from Nature, Crane Flies and Dragonfly, 2001 etching, silkscreen, chine-collĂŠ, 18.5 x 24.5 cm edition of 30
53 Drawn from Nature, Ouzo-drinking Butterfly and Wasps, 2001 etching, silkscreen, chine-collĂŠ, 18.5 x 24.5 cm edition of 30 78
54 Drawn from Nature, Violet Bog Palustus, 2001 etching, silkscreen, chine-collĂŠ, 18.5 x 24.5 cm edition of 30
55 Drawn from Nature, Tree Hibiscus, 2001 etching, silkscreen, chine-collĂŠ, 18.5 x 24.5 cm edition of 30 79
Venice Venice is a great place for survivors. That medieval city which had survived among all these ravages… the creep of lichen, the flaking of paint, the fading of colour, the rubbing away of gold… graffiti adds its message to all this too… The process of change made visible. Victoria Crowe July 2019
Victoria Crowe in Venice, 2014; photograph by Andy Phillipson, livewireimage.com 80
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56 Italian Offerings, 1995 lithograph, 57 x 70.5 cm variable edition of 9 82
57 While in Venice, c.1999 screenprint, 57.5 x 57.5 cm variable edition of 50 83
58 Healing Herb, 2006 silkscreen print, 76.5 x 56 cm edition of 75 84
59 Winter Plant, c.2013 mixed media on silkscreen print, 37.5 x 45.5 cm 85
60 Sentinel Guardian I, c.2010 oil on linen, 112 x 56 cm 86
61 Dogs, La Giudecca, 2016 mixed media on handmade paper, 17.5 x 25 cm 87
62 Italian Landscape with White Clematis, 2010 oil on board, 50 x 95.5 cm 88
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In 2015 I went on a study trip to Sicily which took in most of the island. We drove through the spectacular, mountainous landscape of the interior, and I was able to draw through the coach windows as this fascinating terrain unfolded. After visiting the Norman Cathedral of Monreale, with its rich and wonderful mosaics, the contrast with the austerity of the landscape seemed remarkable – all that gold stayed in my mind as we travelled northwards. Victoria Crowe July 2019
63 Monreale, Sicily Travelling from Monreale, 2015 mixed media and gold leaf, 8 x 12 cm 90
64 Mountain Landscape, Sicily, Evening, 2015 watercolour, 10.5 x 16.5 cm
65 Mountain Landscape, Sicily, 2015 watercolour, 10.5 x 16.5 cm 91
66 Santa Maria Mater Domini, Venice, 2014 watercolour and pencil, 14 x 35 cm
67 Fragment of Venice, 2014 mixed media, 22.5 x 29.5 cm 92
68 The Façade at S. Silvestro, 2015 mixed media on handmade paper, 17 x 50.5 cm
I became fascinated by some of the façades in the city, I just wanted to look at that amazing surface and texture. Of course the best way of looking became to draw – not to make a drawing with a finished image in mind, but to try and understand the randomness of pattern and texture of the façade through recording my eyes’ movement across it. The very fine, thin papers I’ve used for drawings of Venice are deliberately fragile – they become a little torn by the wind as I work – rubbed as I carry them – a parallel to the age of the buildings and structures themselves. I like to present these drawings very carefully – laying them down with reversible, acid neutral EVA onto conservation board – little relics of the city and my thoughts preserved. Victoria Crowe August 2012
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69 The Water Gate, 2012 ink on handmade paper, 47.5 x 36 cm
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70 Venetian Faรงade, 2014 mixed media on handmade paper, 44.5 x 23.5 cm
71 Venetian Faรงade (Giudecca), 2012 ink on handmade paper, 23 x 44 cm 95
72 Venice Sky, 2017 mixed media on paper, 32.5 x 32.5 cm 96
73 City Reflected, 2012 collograph and etching, 39 x 48 cm first colour proof 97
Venice would come to occupy an important place in Victoria’s work. Her early paintings of it drew on this palimpsest quality: the painted surface was layered and distressed as it if were itself bearing the effects of time. Graffiti or transfer printed text were added to the paintings though, like the symbols, they can be hard to read. At this time, Victoria also began to work in printmaking, working at surfaces and adding collage, tissue, wax, gold leaf. It is as if time had become an active force which wears and ravages, but the walls still stood. At the same time as she carefully recorded the wear and tear, she also celebrated their resilience. Susan Mansfield, Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.43
74 The City Reflected, 2012 collograph, etching and silkscreen, 39 x 48 cm edition of 30 98
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Tapestry It’s the scale that tapestry lends to my work that I find very rewarding; small marks, gestures, overlays, patches of opaque and transparent colour, suddenly transformed by the huge increase in scale. The woven artwork can really exploit textural passages and I find the colour translation from my design to the tapestry, which is an almost pointillist resolution, a fascinating process. Victoria Crowe July 2019
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The making of Richer Twilight, Venice at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 2019
Richer Twilight, Venice Tapestry, 2019 Marking this significant year in her career, Dovecot Studios are working with Victoria Crowe to create a new tapestry inspired by a detail from her painting, Twilight, Venice, 2014 (shown opposite). Like many of Victoria’s Venetian paintings, Twilight, Venice features rich colours of a jewellike quality that reflect the intangible preciousness of the city. Engaging with the textural complexity of the painting, Dovecot Master Weavers David Cochrane and Naomi Robertson, and Dovecot weaver Rudi Richardson are creating a sumptuous interpretation of the work that captures the tones and shades of twilight in a new way.
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Dovecot have a long-standing creative relationship with Crowe, which began in 2007 with the tapestry Two Views commissioned by the Duke of Buccleuch. Dovecot weavers and the artist have worked on significant projects including an iconic 40-metre tapestry for The Leathersellers’ Company, London, and Large Tree Group, which was woven entirely with undyed wool. Richer Twilight, Venice tapestry is due to be completed and unveiled in September 2019.
Twilight, Venice, 2014, oil on linen, 114 x 102 cm Private collection 103
75 Mosaic and Wall Painting, Jordan, 2013 mixed media on handmade paper, 19 x 24 cm
76 Under the Sand, Jordan, 2013 mixed media and desert sand on handmade paper, 22 x 30 cm 104
77 Building, Petra, 2013 ink and desert sand on paper, 18.5 x 33 cm 105
78 Hunt Tapestry I, Cloisters Museum New York, 2015 shellac ink on pumice paper, 19.5 x 16.5 cm
79 Hunt Tapestry II, Cloisters Museum, New York, 2015 shellac ink on pumice paper, 16 x 20 cm 106
80 Unicorn Tapestry I, Cloisters Museum New York, 2015 shellac ink on pumice paper, 11 x 21 cm
81 Unicorn Tapestry II, Cloisters Museum New York, 2015 shellac ink on pumice paper, 19 x 12 cm 107
The Leathersellers’ Tapestry at The Leathersellers’ Company, London, 2017; photograph by The Edinburgh Film Company, courtesy of Dovecot Studios
The Leathersellers’ Tapestry by Victoria Crowe Commissioned by The Leathersellers’ Company, London Woven by Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 2014–17
Dovecot was approached in 2014 by art consultant Philomena Davidson to engage in a commission to create a 52m frieze tapestry, woven in nine sections to adorn the three walls of a ceremonial meeting hall for The Leathersellers’ Company in London. The artist chosen to create the design for this tapestry was Victoria Crowe, with whom Dovecot had previously collaborated to create Two Views and the Large Tree Group Tapestry. This new tapestry for Leathersellers’ was integral to the vision of architect Eric Parry, who in 2012 began the redevelopment of the livery company headquarters at
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St. Helen’s Place in the City of London. Parry’s design for the subterranean meeting hall would include a tapestry, addressing the aesthetic and acoustic aspects of the space. Victoria’s design for the tapestry told the story of leather production and celebrated the traditional skills and craftsmanship of textile makers. Victoria Crowe presented a series of designs to the weaving team at Dovecot, illustrating the rich history of the Leathersellers’, to be interpreted in tapestry on an epic scale. Master Weaver Naomi Robertson and her team wove the panels over a three-year period with the final panel being installed in the hall in early 2017.
The making of The Leathersellers’ Tapestry at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 2014–17 109
The Winter Trees
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We are surrounded by trees where we
Victoria’s paintings pull against the
live in West Linton. The most constant
downward spiral. Her winter images
familiars that I draw are in the garden,
are illuminated: silvery hoar frost,
the contorted hazel, the old plum and
snow-melt blue, late afternoon lilac
apple trees, the larch and the rowans.
clouds or a sudden burst of yellow
Beyond the garden are the distant lime
light. Faces from memory surface,
trees and mixed woodland on the small
melancholy but lovely. Even as the
hill by the green which have all been
protagonist laments the dying of his
subject matter for me. I see the trees
last hope with the fall of the last leaf,
over days and years of change, in all
Victoria shows us the beauty of the sky
seasons, transformed by frost, snow
through bare branches.
and backlit by low winter sun. Their familiarity to me seems to give them
Susan Mansfield, Victoria Crowe:
an iconic status which goes beyond
50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co,
the casual reality of the here and now,
2019, p.46
towards the contemplative. I am drawn to looking at the complexity of their structure, which is why winter is so wonderful. I love the transforming nature of snow light, twilight, backlight – all taking the image further away from conventional imagery. I’ve only ever done a couple of paintings where the deciduous trees are clothed all in green, and certainly no sustained drawing. Victoria Crowe July 2019
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82 Winter Fence, 2010 oil on linen, 71 x 91 cm 112
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83 Back Garden, Bank House, c.2005 pencil and pastel on paper, 30.5 x 40.5 cm 114
84 Winter Caveat, 2010–11 oil on linen, 127 x 127 cm 115
85 Solstice Tree, 2010–11 pencil drawing, 50 x 40.5 cm 116
86 Solstice, Trees and Ice, 2012 collograph and etching, 66 x 52 cm second state proof 117
In her Solstice series, Victoria Crowe has identified an aspect of the sublime in the detailed filigree of the tree in winter, its delicate structure at once robust and vulnerable, permanent and ephemeral. The skeleton is posed in front of a tree in full leaf, the positive behind the negative, while all around a red sky, the colour of an approaching forest fire, speaks of the cycle of growth, destruction and regeneration, the greatest paradigm for the cycle of life. Guy Peploe
87 Solstice, Trees and Ice, 2013 collograph and etching, 50 x 40 cm edition of 30 118
88 The Last Evening at the Winter House, 2014 mixed media on handmade paper, 57 x 43 cm 119
89 Frozen Moment I, 2010–11 mixed media, 40.5 x 50 cm 120
90 Frozen Moment II, 2010–11 mixed media, 40.5 x 50 cm 121
Notes, sketchbooks and initial drawings are important to all artists – in my sketchbooks I consider ideas and images and tend to draw and reference many things which do not necessarily become developed into paintings, but which have a richness, humour and spontaneity about them that I want to use. Victoria Crowe August 2012
91 Study for Shape of the Shadow, 2010 oil on paper, 38.5 x 48 cm 122
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92 Central Park with Some Snow, 2015 watercolour, 17.5 x 25 cm 124
93 Central Park from the Guggenheim, 2015 pencil and watercolour, 17.5 x 25 cm 125
94 Winter, 2012 monoprint, 57 x 76 cm 126
95 Night Sky, Frost Tree, c.2015 oil and monoprint, 43 x 49.5 cm 127
96 Trees against Light, 2016 mixed media on handmade paper, 12 x 39 cm
97 Contorted Hazel, West Linton, 2000's pencil drawing, 18.5 x 34.5 cm 128
98 Study for Opening Out, 2016 pencil and watercolour, 34.5 x 33.5 cm 129
Drawing & Thinking‌ Shifting Evening Light I spent three weeks during February
During the April part of the residency,
and April 2015 as an invited artist on a
I spent more time watching the
residency at Dumfries House. At that
strengthening daylight from dawn
time I had been working on a series
onwards and then through to dusk and
of paintings exploring the nature of
the luminous nights (there was very
twilight on the land, so the residency
little light pollution to come between
was not only an extension of that
observer and the clarity of the sky).
concern, but a chance to observe a
Some of the evening/night drawings
fairly contained landscape intimately
look weird in the sketch books now,
throughout 24 hours. The studios are
everything pulled into a mid-tone, but
situated in the middle of hardwoods
they lodged the experience firmly in
and Wellingtonias, with views on to
my mind.
the rest of the parkland and forested areas. Due to the close proximity of the
Victoria Crowe
landscape, I became immersed in its
August 2016
differing aspects and moods during the changing winter light of those short February days.
Dumfries House, Ayrshire; photograph by Garry Robertson 130
Some of the biggest drawings I
own linear edge with a particular and
have done were during the invited
extraordinary quality. Drawing on
residences of Dumfries House. The
top of collage, tissue, resist or toned
studio windows gave immediately
pumice primed paper, provide a huge
onto the landscape of parkland, field
range of drawing marks which become
and hillside. The mature woodlands
a repository of ways of interpreting the
were dominated by huge Wellingtonias
subject and closing in on the thought
which formed a shifting screen of
process.
changing light and tree silhouettes. I worked directly from the subject matter
There is an element of experiment and
trying to indicate the scale of these
freedom in sketchbook and notebook
immense trees.
drawings too; looking and recording the sheer strangeness of something
One of the things I love most about
seen, the humour of a situation, or the
drawing is the range of media and
unconsidered immediacy of things.
supports that can be used and the
In these spontaneous drawings I have
immediacy of pastel or washes of ink;
a way of exploring or playing with an
the precise (maybe slow?) bite of an
idea in a way I would never want to do
HB pencil into thick white paper; the
with painting.
way shellac ink sits with a sheen on the surface of primed paper (add water
Victoria Crowe
and it fractures and floats ). Washes
June 2019
of watercolour dry and form their
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99 Dumfries House IV, 2018 mixed media on black paper, 16.5 x 11 cm 132
100 Hillside Tree III, 2018 oil and ink on pumice primed paper, 15.5 x 20 cm
101 Dumfries House I, 2018 mixed media on paper, 15.5 x 20 cm 133
102 From the Studio, Dumfries House, 2018 mixed media, 35.5 x 41 cm 134
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103 Twilight Drawing, Dumfries House, 2018 mixed media, 35.5 x 71 cm 136
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While I was at Dumfries House, I made some large ink drawings on acetate which became the basis for a series of monoprints, which I made with the assistance of Robert Adam at Graal Press. I didn’t want to do an edition of identical images, but to produce single, unique prints exploring a variety of light sources, moods and atmosphere on a particular landscape image. The key drawing of the tree line and several other tonal and wash drawings which built up density in the landscape and sky, were each transferred onto separate silkscreens. By varying the colour, tone, opacity and order of printing, I was able to work through a range of ideas about the changing, powerful and fleeting aspects of that landscape. Victoria Crowe August 2016
104 Double Landscape, Moonlight and Twilight, 2016 oil and screenprint, 62.5 x 75 cm 138
HIGH RES REQUIRED
139
Trees do literally embody the passage of time; they are witnesses. The Fortingall Yew, for instance, may have stood for longer than the whole of recorded human history. The title of Numinous Garden, which was one of the first paintings in this new series and which foregrounds a large single tree, already suggests the mysterious presence trees can have, for the dictionary defines ‘numinous’ as ‘having strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of ‘divinity’. If a tree is numinous, it is the tree itself that has this power. It is not some extraneous spirit that has taken over either the tree, or indeed the wood. Our ancestors, especially the ancient Celts, for whom each species of tree evidently held its own special significance, certainly recognised this mystery. Duncan Macmillan, Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.83
105 Against the Light, Warmer Change, 2015–16 monoprint, 57 x 67 cm 140
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106 Winter Tree Studies, group of three, 2018 mixed media on paper, 14.5 x 9 cm (each) 142
107 Mellow Winter Trees, 2017 silkscreen monoprint and mixed media on handmade paper, 31.5 x 26 cm 143
I can’t choose the season To depart from this place I won’t delay or ponder I must begin my journey now The bright moon lights my path It will guide me on my road I see the snow-covered meadow I see where deer have trod Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller, Die Winterreise, Chapter 2, Good Night, 1829
For this exhibition, the present and future must be included and as I write Vicky plans to paint something arising from a visit back to a studio at Ayrshire’s Dumfries House (the location of her recent artist’s residency) where she will fill sketchbooks with ideas and notes. She hopes to show a new, monumental painting that includes the motif of the Venetian mirror and fragments of the landscape – the latter seeming such a significant and richly symbolic spiritual resource for an artist who shows no sign of riding off into any sunset, other than to capture its essence.
108 Landscape, Mirror Reflection, 2019 mixed media, 140 x 100 cm 144
Guy Peploe, Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting, Sansom & Co, 2019, p.16
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Victoria Crowe in her studio, Edinburgh, July 2019; photograph by Kenneth Gray 146
Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA (RCA), RSA, RSW Chronology 1945 Born on 8 May (Victory in Europe / VE Day) in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. 1956–61 Attended St Ursuline Convent Grammar School, Wimbledon, London. 1961–5 Studied at Kingston School of Art. Tutors included Prunella Clough, Lionel Bulmer and Graham Arnold. Fuelled by an interest in Russian icon paintings and Eisenstein’s films, visited Moscow and Leningrad via East Berlin and Warsaw with National Union of Students in 1964. 1965–8 Undertook further study at Royal College of Art in London. Tutors included Carel Weight, Leonard Rosoman and Peter Blake. Talks by luminaries such as John Cage, Iris Murdoch and E.H. Gombrich provided extra stimulus. At her postgraduate exhibition, she was invited by Head of Drawing and Painting Robin Philipson to teach at Edinburgh College of Art. Among the staff when she arrived were Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston and David Michie. For the next thirty years she worked as a part-time lecturer in the School of Drawing and Painting while developing her own artistic practice. 1967 Married fellow artist Michael Walton. 1968 David Murray Landscape Award, Royal College of Art. 1970 First solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery (Aitken Dott & Son Ltd) in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Gallery have represented her ever since. By now settled at Kittleyknowe, a hamlet near Carlops in the Pentland hills south-west of Edinburgh. One of her neighbours was the 68-year-old shepherdess Jenny Armstrong. 1970–85 Second study trip to Russia in 1971, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, Vladimir and Suzdal. Recipient of several bursaries and awards, including the Anne Redpath Award and the Scottish Arts Council Printmaking Bursary. Study trip to Denmark and Finland in 1973. Son Ben born in April 1973 and daughter Gemma in June 1976. Elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Landscapes and interiors predominate, with neighbour Jenny Armstrong featuring consistently. Early portrait commissions of Winifred Rushforth and R.D. Laing are well received and signal an important new development in her work. First solo exhibition at the Thackeray Gallery, London, in 1983, where she exhibited regularly until 2007. 1985 Her close friend Jenny Armstrong died. 1985–90 Major awards in this period include the Hunting Group art prize, the Daler/Rowney Prize for Watercolour (Royal Academy, London) and the Chris Beetles Prize at the Royal Watercolour Society Open Exhibition, London. Elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Portraits include Kathleen Raine and Janet Vaughan for National Portrait Gallery, London; Tam Dalyell for West Lothian District Council; and Lord Wemyss for National Trust for Scotland.
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1990 Filmed for STV series Portrait of the Wild. Moved from Kittleyknowe to nearby West Linton.
2003 Acquired a studio in Venice on the island of Giudecca. The multi-layered history of the city begins to impact her work.
1992 Sir William Gillies Bequest funds first visit to Italy. Italian art and landscape becomes an increasingly important theme in her practice.
2004 Awarded an OBE for Services to Art. Presented the Sir William Gillies Award, Royal Scottish Academy, for travel and research.
1992–4 Invited by Artists for Nature Foundation and funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature to join a group of international artists working on a conservation project in Poland (1992) and Extremadura, Spain (1994).
2004–7 Appointed Senior Visiting Scholar at St Catherine’s College, University of Cambridge. Work created from this post shown in Plant Memory, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, in 2007. The exhibition subsequently tours across Scotland. Portrait of Thea Musgrave commissioned by Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
1995 Son Ben died of mouth cancer. A trust established in his name to raise awareness and funds to tackle oral cancers in young people. 1997 Commissioned by the Danish National Portrait Gallery to paint the Danish Resistance leader Ole Lippmann for the twentieth century collection of portraits at Frederiksborg Castle, Copenhagen. Invited by Glasgow Museums and Galleries and Artists for Nature Foundation to take part in the Tiger, Tiger project at Bandhavgarh National Park, India. 2000–2002 Invited artist for shortlist of Jesus 2000 commission, Glasgow Museums and Galleries. A Shepherd’s Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe staged at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The exhibition wins wide critical and popular acclaim, and goes on to tour seven further venues in Scotland and England. First major book Painted Insights is published.
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2008 Commission of large-scale tapestry Two Views. Woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh. Currently hangs in Boughton House, Northamptonshire. 2009 Awarded Doctor Honoris Causa (DHC), University of Aberdeen. The exhibition A Shepherd’s Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe recreated and exhibited at the Fleming Collection, London. 2010 Elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, Reflection, at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Begins exhibiting with Browse & Darby, London. 2011–12 Commissioned for a major suite of paintings for a redesigned period home in the Scottish Borders. The tapestry Large Tree Group, based on the painting of the same name, is commissioned and woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh. Currently
hangs in the National Museum of Scotland. Appointed Deputy President of the Royal Scottish Academy. First critical monograph, Victoria Crowe by Duncan Macmillan, is published.
A Parallel Journey, a collaboration with opera singer Matthew Rose and pianist Gary Matthewman, is performed at the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, and at the Wigmore Hall, London.
2013 The exhibition Fleece to Fibre, based on the making of the Large Tree Group tapestry, is shown during the Edinburgh International Festival at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. It tours thereafter to the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne; Inverness; and London. Commissioned portrait of Peter Higgs for the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Awarded a prestigious tapestry commission by the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers for the livery company’s headquarters in the City of London.
2018 Victoria Crowe: Beyond Likeness is exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and showcases over fifty portraits from the 1960s to the present. A commissioned portrait of HRH Prince Charles, the Duke of Rothesay, unveiled. Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, A Certain Light, held at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Winterreise: A Parallel Journey is performed at the Weesp Chamber Music Festival, Netherlands.
2014 Participates in BBC Radio 4 Start the Week ‘Spirit of Place’ episode hosted by Andrew Marr. Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, Real and Reflected, at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Permanence and Fragility solo exhibition at Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster. 2015 Invited contributor, Europa Nostra: A Sense of Place, University of Cambridge. Artist-in-residence at The Royal Drawing School Artist Studios, Dumfries House.
2019 Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting shown at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. This major survey documents the artist’s career from student work to the present day. Invited residency at Dumfries House. 50 Years: Drawing & Thinking held at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. The artist presently divides her time between the Scottish Borders, Edinburgh and Italy.
2016 Commissioned portrait of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell for the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 2017 The Leathersellers’ Tapestry, woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh, is installed in the Dining Hall of the Leathersellers’ building. The finished tapestry is 40 metres long. Awarded Sir William Gillies Research Award by the Royal Scottish Academy supporting the making of a video projection responding to Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle. Winterreise: 149
Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting by Susan Mansfield, Duncan Macmillan and Guy Peploe Published by Sansom & Co, 2019 This is the publication to accompany The City Art Centre’s major exhibition Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting by Susan Mansfield, with written contributions from Duncan Macmillan and Guy Peploe.
Victoria Crowe by Duncan Macmillan Published by Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012 The author Duncan Macmillan HRSA, FRSE is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh. He was Director of the Talbot Rice Gallery (1979–2004). He has been art critic for The Scotsman since 1994.
Victoria Crowe: Painted Insights by Victoria Crowe and Michael Walton Published by Antique Collectors’ Club, 2001 An essay by art historian and critic Colin Bailey sets her work in context. Then follows a chronological path through her life and work, told in her own highly individual words, but punctuated by the voices of critics. It concludes close in time to where it started, thus forming a cyclical link, a theme that runs as a constant thread throughout the work itself.
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Victoria Crowe Beyond Likeness
Catching the Light
by Duncan Macmillan and Victoria Crowe
edited by Susan Mansfield and Alan Spence
Published by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2018
Published by The Scottish Gallery, 2019
‘The most important portraits to me are the ones of people who have enriched my own thinking or awareness. Areas of philosophy, religion, psychological perspectives, poetry, music, art history, women’s roles and the inner life are important issues for me – and all have been nurtured by these people whom I have met through portraiture.’
A lavishly illustrated book of poetry inspired by the paintings of Victoria Crowe. Limited edition of 500 copies.
Victoria Crowe
Victoria Crowe: The Leathersellers’ Tapestry
A Shepherd’s Life, Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe
by Victoria Crowe and Naomi Robertson
by Mary Taubman, Julie Lawson and Victoria Crowe
Published by The Leathersellers’ Company, 2017
Published by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (new edition 2018)
This book documents the development of a forty metre frieze of handwoven tapestries which shows Victoria Crowe’s inspired design, rich in glowing colours and imaginative motifs. The commission was woven by Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh, and designed for three walls of the dining room in the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers’ new Livery Hall, as designed by Eric Parry RA and installed in January 2017.
‘Jenny Armstrong was born in 1903 at the farm of lower Pentland Hills. Victoria Crowe’s pictures pay tribute to the life and work of this individual and at the same time record a rural way of life, once common, but now changing so fast that it has evolved beyond recognition.’ John Leighton and James Holloway 151
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition
Victoria Crowe 50 Years: Drawing & Thinking 28 August – 28 September 2019 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/victoriacrowe ISBN: 978-1-912-900-08-4 Thanks to Chantal de Prez, author of the Chronology. Designed by Kenneth Gray, www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography of artwork by John McKenzie Photography of studio details by Kenneth Gray Printed by J Thomson 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.
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