Working from Home
With the furlough leave scheme coming to an end, more people than ever are working from home. Let’s take a look at the ‘new normal’ of work away from the open plan office, via paintings…
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Women at Work
Let’s celebrate the working lives of modern Scottish women artists, in images they painted of their professional and personal worlds. Dorothy Carleton Smyth: The Artist In Self-portrait of 1921 by Dorothy Carleton Smyth (1880-1931), the…
View PostThe Digital Future of the Art World Webinar
I am delighted to be a co-organiser and speaker at the Scottish Society for Art History and Creative Informatics webinar ‘Lockdown Legacy: The Digital Future of the Art and Digital Cultural Heritage World.’ It will…
View PostBeneath the Mask
With most of us now wearing masks on a daily basis, join modern Scottish artists in revelling in the human face. John Duncan Fergusson: Full-frontal Hortensia of 1907 by the Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson…
View PostFountainbridge Library: Building of the Month
I am delighted that my feature about Fountainbridge Library (1937-40), Dundee Street, Edinburgh has just been published as October’s Twentieth-Century Society Building of the Month. Doors Open Days 2020 The feature discusses this rare and…
View PostHarvest Time
As October begins and Autumn matures, we reach harvest time once again. Artists have celebrated this climax of the agricultural calendar in various ways. A Cornfield in Catterline In The Cornfield of c.1960, Joan Eardley…
View PostThe Studio at 32 York Place
Whilst scrolling through the colour and noise of Instagram, a low-toned Mother and Son portrait slowed my finger to a stop. Taken by the photographer David Eustace it showed Elizabeth and Guy Peploe, daughter-in-law and…
View PostOpening Doors and Climbing Stairs at Fountainbridge Library
Fountainbridge Library, Dundee Street, Edinburgh is a rare example of modern Scottish architecture. Designed by John A. W. Grant (1886/7–1959) it was built between 1937 and 1940. It opened as a state-of-the-art library during the…
View PostModern Scottish Women Artists talk now on YouTube
My ten-minute talk ‘From Student to Professional: Modern Scottish Women Artists’ is now available on YouTube. I talk about Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Pat Douthwaite, Joan Eardley and Anne Redpath, who have all contributed to modern Scottish…
View PostMentoring Andrea Geile
I am delighted to have been invited by the artist Andrea Geile to mentor her as she embarks on a significant, long-term project. As it explains on her website: “[Geile is…] a visual artist based…
View PostThe Humble Jug
What would artists do without that stalwart still life prop, the humble jug? More informal and utilitarian than a vase and used in a myriad of ways, once you become aware of its self-effacing role…
View PostFountainbridge Library and Doors Open Days 2020
My local library, Foutainbridge Library on Dundee Street, Edinburgh, is a rare and important example of modern Scottish architecture. Designed by John A. W. Grant (1886/7-1959), it was built between 1937 and 1940. It opened…
View PostAutumn is in the Air!
As September proceeds, there is a definite feel of Autumn in the air. Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904) captures the season’s warm sunshine and the turning of leaves from green to copper in Autumn of about 1898.…
View PostScottish Art in the 1920s Lecture
I will be giving a free lecture to accompany the exhibition Bright Shadows: Scottish Art in the 1920s at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. It is called ‘Proposed and Seconded: The Royal Scottish Academy Nomination…
View PostHappy 40th Birthday City Art Centre!
The City Art Centre, part of Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, opened in 1980. To mark its 40th birthday, I was asked to contribute to an Art UK curation by choosing my favourite painting from their…
View PostEdinburgh College of Art 2020 Graduate Show
I was delighted to be asked to respond to Edinburgh College of Art’s 2020 Graduate Show. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, it is taking place on-line this year. The students and their teachers have made…
View PostModern Scottish Art Treasures in Greenock
One of my favourite galleries is McLean Museum and Art Gallery, which is part of the Watt Institution in Greenock. They have a splendid collection of Modern Scottish art and during lockdown I had the…
View PostFour Modern Scottish Artists in the Walker Art Gallery
Did you know that the Walker Art Gallery, part of the National Museums Liverpool, has some super Modern Scottish art? I didn’t until I took at look at their collection on the terrific Art UK…
View PostFree Modern Scottish Women Artists Zoom Talk
Please join me when I give a free, 10-minute zoom talk at 11am on Saturday 22 August 2020, called ‘From Student to Professional: Modern Scottish Women Artists‘. It accompanies the Modern Masters Women exhibition at…
View PostModern Scottish Work in Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery suggested that I write about modern Scottish art in their collection on the subject of ‘work’. I accepted the challenge! We decided on the following themes: How does work relate to time?…
View PostScottish Art in Newcastle
I’m half-Geordie, so I particularly enjoyed writing about modern Scottish art in the collection of the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. I wrote about paintings by the Glasgow Boy E. A. Hornel, Glasgow School of…
View PostWilhelmina Barns-Graham at Pallant House Gallery
Travel with Wilhelmina Barns-Graham to St Ives, Yorkshire and Switzerland via works in the collection of Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.
View PostThe Great Escape
Escape the four walls of your lockdown home and go on holiday with four modern Scottish artists, to Italy, Spain and France, via paintings in UK public collections.
View PostSchool’s Out for Summer!
Celebrate the end of the school year and the start of the summer holiday via paintings in UK public collections by James Cowie, Norman Clark, Joan Eardley and Henry Stringer in this curatorial blog.
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