New editions!

I am delighted to announce the launch of three new editions available to purchase direct from the shop section of this website

“Sutherland Revisited’ is an open edition inject print based on a large ink drawing (101 x 150cm) I made near Clachtoll in Sutherland earlier this century. I reworked the surface with late summer watercolour upon my return to Sutherland just before lockdown,  and can now be  purchased here  and enjoyed on a more domestic scale!

 

Clogherhead Strand – A Print for Ukraine

I was lucky enough to be on holiday in Ireland with my partner Michael, at the same time as the Ukrainians were experiencing their first awful weeks of the Russian invasion. We experienced glorious hospitality everywhere, a mixture of seeing old friends and making new ones, visiting cultural institutions and walking in nature on both sides of the Irish border.

On our last day in County Louth, we were taken to Clogherhead Strand, on the edge of the Boyne Estuary – after a windswept walk at low tide, we paused for coffee in the outdoor Strand café to catch our breath. Nearby, children were doing what children on beaches do the world over – they play, they dig, and jump and build wee sand castles for the sheer joy of knocking them down and starting over again.

I could not help but make this small ink and watercolour drawing, sketching the very action of their joyous freedoms expressed so purely.

As a place of freedom, it seemed appropriate to offer this picture ‘Clogherhead Strand’ as an edition of 60 inkjet prints on quality archival paper, for sale at £75 each (+ £10 Postage and packing) with 100% of the sales income going towards charities that directly help Ukrainian citizens in the midst of war but also here in Scotland. 40 prints are available in Scotland, and 20 in Ireland.

It is with thanks to the kind generosity of Edinburgh Arts Picture Framers who made this beautiful edition pro-bono in order that maximum funds can reach those who need them most. Exhibition sales as follows: 20 prints on sale here, 20 prints on sale via Edinburgh Arts Picture Framers

All funds received (apart from Postage & Packing) will be sent direct to Ukrainian support charities.

These are the  two very deserving charities I have selected:

https://www.thewelcoming.org/ukraine-appeal/

http://www.medbat.org.ua/en/about-pfvmh/

 

Study for ‘Three Bridge Evening’

Here is my  latest etching, completed in February ’22 in Glasgow, inspired by the confluence of  bridges over the Forth Estuary, each crossing representing three different centuries of  design. From my particular viewpoint (as seen from Carlingnose Point in North Queensferry) they appear to intermingle in a distant perspective of transport options spanning the river.

This limited-edition print has just been co-published with Glasgow Print Studio.  in collaboration with master printer Stuart Duffin. The print can be viewed/purchased directly from this website and also seen alongside a  retrospective selection of my Bridge prints on show until April 30th. It was a great experience to return to collaborating and  exhibiting at GPS after the lockdown and I look forward to many new projects with them later this year.

 

Conversations with Joan

Many of you might know that for 15 weeks from October 2021-February 2022 I was deep inside a fascinating project which came about through my desire to create an appropriate homage to the work and life of Joan Eardley, an amazing UK painter who was based in Scotland and has been a profound influence upon so many artists, myself included.

2021 marked the Centenary year of her birth, and you can read all about my attempts to create a completion of her unfinished painting ‘Two Children’ here https://glasgowmuseums-exhibitions.co.uk/joan-eardley/

This link takes you to the blog which covers the whole studio process in my own words & pictures, from start to finish. I am delighted to announce that Glasgow Museum has now purchased my painting ‘Four Children 1962-2022’ by Kate Downie RSA (after Joan Eardley RSA) for their permanent collection.  More news to follow about viewing the painting in a public gallery.

 

Exhibition News

My work can currently be viewed at the

196th Annual Exhibition at the RSA https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/exhibitions/forthcoming/

Until June 12th 2022

New Acquisitions at the City Arts Centre https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/incoming-new-acquisitions-city-art-centre

Until 28th May 2023

Kate Downie Printing Bridges 1999-2022 https://www.gpsart.co.uk/Home/DisplayExhibition/241?year=2022

Until 30th April 2022

 

Festival Lecture at the City Arts Centre

“The Art of Crossing’ August 3rd 2pm

I will be presenting a lecture ‘The Art Of Crossing’ live at the Edinburgh Festival to coincide with ‘Incoming – New Acquisitions’ Exhibition

Tickets are free but booking is essential

https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/kate-downie-art-crossing-0

  Birchtree Studios 2020

 

This time last year the very spot where I now sit was a muddy construction site with diggers and builders  – One year later year it is a fantastic warm workspace full of light and possibilities.  Last July we celebrated its completion with many friends and since then I have been trying to sort out all my art in the new space and have enjoyed making new work..

 

 

 

 

A New Teaching Programme for Autumn

This year I am  delighted to launch a new course of mentoring and tutorials at Birchtree Studios – ‘Introduction to a Painting-based Studio Practice’ commencing October 9th 2020. I am looking forward to working with six keen students of all ages! All information about the course can be seen here.

 

 Micro Residencies at Birchtree

Last week while I was working in a stormy corner of the Isle of Mull, artist/maker Su Vernon was here enjoying the very first Birchtree Studio micro-residency, using the space, the peace and quiet to complete her PhD and develop some new work.  New dates in September and October 2020 can be seen here.

 

Before the teaching gets underway however, Michael & I will be welcoming people from Fife and beyond to Birchtree Studios over 3 days from 8-10^th May 2020 for the Open Studios North Fife event OSNF, becoming part of our local artists’ network and sharing our space, ideas and art with the visiting public along with a 100 strong network of artists and makers in this area

 

 

 

Outside Edge

Outside Edge is an exciting collaborative project happening between Scotland and China, involving residencies, travel and exhibitions. It started life in  2009 sparked by a meeting of minds between international Brighton-based  artist Helen Goodwin and myself, stretching to China in 2013 with the meeting of two impeccable Chinese Ink Painter/artists Xu Yun and Hong Shen. All three were able to join me in September 2019 in this beautiful, remote and resonant outside edge of Mull (an island off the North-West coast of Scotland)  for a week long brain- storming of ideas, drawings, walks and creative responses to this wild land/seascape and to each others’ art.

It was a thrilling week;  battling the elements, finding common ground and forging new territories in an ancient coast redolent with historical narratives be they  geological, human or animal.  We four artists were due to re-meet this very week in Beijing to commence Phase II of Outside Edge: ‘Carsaig to China’ for a further collaborative residency and exhibition of our Carsaig work in the coastal city of Qingdao.  Unfortunately this  has had to be deferred until September 2020 owing to the COVID-19 Virus. However, the Royal Scottish Academy has invited the OUTSIDE EDGE exhibition to tour from Qingdao into the Finlay Room of the RSA in the autumn  2021 so that those unable to visit China later this year can see Carsaig re-imagined by us all next year in Edinburgh.

Printmaking 2020

Back in Fife, new printmaking projects are soon to be launched. I am delighted to announce a research-funding award from VACMA (Visual Arts and Craft-makers Award/Creative Scotland) towards developing  my screen-printing skills  at Glasgow Print Studio to make a fresh series of ‘ Fife Journey Prints’ celebrating the landscape & human interaction as experienced through local train travel.

Plans are also afoot for a collaboration with master printer Leena Namari and Fife Dunfermline Print Studio for my latest Forth Bridge Print  (The Art of Crossing III) using 3-D drawing, film footage and cyanotype printing methods – intrigued? So am I!

I will report on this soon, in the meantime I wish you a very happy springtime.

 

 

 

Current Group Exhibitions

Archipelago , The Academicians Gallery

Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh

until March 22^nd

21^st Century Women – Backdoor Gallery, Clydebank Museum

last chance to see the ‘Women on a Train’ paintings.

2^nd March – 20^th April

RSA 194th Annual Open Exhibition

First sight of the collaborative Carsaig Cave Painting

28^th March – 3^rd May

 

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