/Scottish_Gallery_Michie_Family

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THE MICHIE FAMILY



THE MICHIE FAMILY 4 – 30 JUNE 2012

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

Front cover: David Michie, At the Harbour, Granton, 1953, oil on canvas, 56 x 69 cms Inside covers: James Michie, Bristol Construction Site, 1955, pencil, 66 x 85 cms


foreword

It is not uncommon for some artistic talent to pass onto the next generation and for a number of siblings and children to pursue a similar creative pathway. Anne Redpath is recognized as one of the greatest painters of her generation; her reputation grew beyond the confines of Scotland in her lifetime and continues to grow. Two of her sons, David and Alastair have pursued careers in painting, although quite separately. They both used their own family name, Michie, that came from their father James and for many it will be his group of paintings which provides the surprise in this family exhibition. He was an architect/peintre who perhaps suffered as a painter because of his chosen profession as an architect. Architecture has long been accepted as a pillar equal to painting in the academies of the arts but professional duties and affiliations put a restraint on the architect’s ability to be accepted as a painter beyond the expectation of competence. For James Michie the burgeoning talent of his wife may have put a further barrier in the way of a full flowering of his own ability. Diffidence, a lack of hard work, jealousies and an absence of self-belief have undermined many potentially successful careers and sometimes the furnace of one man’s genius can consume the lesser abilities of his immediate family. For the Michie boys painting was not a family business (in the sense of the Renaissance family atelier) but two individuals combining natural talents with a steely determination to pursue their own star. For Lindsay, the middle son, different, practical gifts launched him on a business career with GEC which many would consider as equally ‘successful’ as the mercurial Alastair or David, prospering at Edinburgh College of Art. Some will look at this exhibition and see family likenesses in approach to painting. All will have a glimpse of family life, with the inclusion of one piece of Redpath-adorned furniture, and truly their mother’s personality expressed large in her work and her home must have been somehow formative on the children. Guy Peploe

Lindsay, David and Alastair at Eyemouth c.1940; Michie boys and friends at Chateau Gloria c.1932; Anne in St Omer 1921; Alastair; James in Uniform c.1914; David; Anne at Edinburgh College of Art c.1915; Anne Redpath 2


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James Beattie Michie (1891–1960)

Though born in Inverness, James Michie was from a family firmly based in Hawick. He attended school there, and thereafter was apprenticed to an architectural practice, Alan Hopkirk, in that town. My father joined the army in 1914 when war broke out and served in the Royal Scots Regiment. Several years were spent on the Western Front, and he was then despatched to India, serving in the 54th Sikh Regiment. Married in 1920 to Anne Redpath, he was apprenticed that year to the War Graves Commission, and joined other, mainly young, architects under the direction of Edwin Lutyens, tasked in the design and layout of the many war cemeteries, big and small, that were spread about in the north-east corner of France. My father’s interest in painting can be seen developing at that time, and the landscape, often featuring a windmill, became a subject of attraction. An interest in painting remained throughout his life. This was not particularly unusual for an architect. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and others have shown much skill and achievement in painting. Moving to the south of France in the late 20’s, my father became a private architect to a wealthy American, Charles Thompson, who had bought a large villa, he named Chateau Gloria, at St Jean on Cap Ferrat, adjacent to Villefranche. He carried out a number of projects – a loggia, a swimming pool in the large garden of the estate, and other projects within the chateau. In 1931 he was commissioned to paint two murals in the Chapelle St Roseline at a Carthusian Monastery, Chartreuse Notre-Dame de Montrieux, situated in wooded country about 30 kilometres north of Toulon. Thompson lost much of his wealth during the years following the 1929 crash and in 1934 he sold the chateau, returning to America, and the Michie family moved back to Hawick. Employment prospects at this time were bleak, but my father was fortunate to be appointed to a prominent architecture practice, Charles Holden and Partners, in London. When war broke out in 1939, he volunteered to join the army and was placed in the Gloucestershire Regiment and, no doubt because of his Scottish background, was appointed as requisitioning officer for the Borders. He spent the war years based in Galashiels, attending to the needs of the thousands of soldiers who required billeting in the Borders region. He had time to make paintings, surprisingly. After the war he was appointed as a lecturer at the West of England School of Architecture in Bristol. He balanced his time teaching architecture to his students and making paintings, and held exhibitions there. It was a varied life with different experiences. Making paintings was a constant thread. David Michie April 2012

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Borders Landscape, c.1944 watercolour on paper laid on board, 44 x 53 cms 5


Landscape, Northern France oil on canvas, 43 x 58 cms 6


Bristol Construction Site, 1955 pencil, 66 x 85 cms 7


Two Figures oil on canvas, 61 x 61 cms 8


Still Life with Chinese Figures oil on canvas, 64 x 73 cms 9


anne redpath (1895–1965) OBE, RSA, ARA, RWA

Anne Redpath was born on the 29th of March, 1895 in Galashiels in the heart of the Scottish Borders. Her father Thomas Redpath was a celebrated tweed designer who was recognised both as an innovator and exceptional colourist. It was not just an eye for colour that Anne inherited from her father, but a focus and professionalism to her craft which was to drive her throughout her life. One of four children, Anne attended Hawick High School where her artistic talent was spotted by the art teacher John Gray (later to be president of the Royal Society for Painters in Watercolour). Anne arrived at Edinburgh College of Art in 1913, although she had to simultaneously attend a teacher training course at Moray House to keep her father happy. Graduating with a diploma in 1918, she was also awarded a year’s postgraduate study followed by a travelling scholarship the following year. She visited Brussels, Bruges, Paris, Florence and most importantly, Sienna. Her encounter with the Siennese Primitives was to impress her greatly. It was their simplification of form partnered with a powerful vision that had most resonance with her, and their influence is seen in her landscapes of the 1920s and 30s as well as work from the end of her life. On her return from her travels Anne was engaged to James Michie, a young architect also from the Borders. They married in 1920 and almost immediately moved to St Omer in Northern France, where James was working for the War Graves Commission. It was in St Omer where the first two Michie sons were born. She did have a small exhibition in St Omer in 1921 (and again in St. Raphael in 1928) but at this stage Anne’s painting took a back seat, her priorities were with her young family. They had moved again at this point to St. Jean, Cap Ferrat near Nice. Although painting was not her first priority at this time, her drive as an artist was by no means diminished. In her own words: ‘Young women often come up to me and say: “I am going to be like you and give up everything for painting”, but that’s not how I see it at all. I could never have sacrificed my family to painting, and I don’t think anyone else should either… I put everything I had into house and furniture and dresses and good food and people. All that’s the same sort of thing as painting really, and the experience went back into art when I began painting again.’ When she returned to Hawick in 1934 the landscape of her childhood offered much inspiration; winter light, bare trees and swollen rivers of The Borders. In her studio she painted a few memorable figure compositions including touching family portraits, three of which feature in this exhibition. Increasingly, tabletop still lifes became a favourite subject and were to make her reputation, (and as James had moved to London in search of work) her livelihood. Her palette during the 1930s was at first muted and there is both a delicacy in application and mastery of pale tones and areas of jewel-like colour. Her landscapes, painted in the studio are a distillation of experience; her choice of what to include and exclude in her design part of her character as a picture maker. In the 1950s and until her death in 1965 she travelled extensively (often with her sons in tow!), which hugely enriched the scope of her subject matter. She always brought back exotic objects for the studio and sketchbooks full of material for her oils. Her first trip back to the continent was in 1949, and again in 1950. She travelled to Spain in the spring of 1951 with her friend Bill Garrad. The harsh landscape and stark light of the Spanish countryside astounded her, and was very different from the warm, gentleness of the South of France. It engendered a change which was to affect her practice for the last years of her life; ‘If one painted nothing but still-life one would fall into the narrow range of one’s own natural selection. To go to Spain and find dark grey skies and white villages; to Italy and find that the sky is more violet than blue; to Corsica and find violets and scarlets on the hillsides; all this enlarges one’s range of colour and responsiveness.’

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Like most of the edinburgh School painters she divided her output between oil and working on paper, valuing each the same. Latterly in her flowers, townscapes and church interiors her treatment of the canvas became more abstract as she abandoned traditional spatial composition. Her technique developed also, employing the palette knife as much as the brush and using rich and brilliant colour. redpath was an inspirational person and formed many enduring friendships. Her flat in London Street became an artistic salon, immortalised by robin Philipson’s affectionate group portrait now in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Since her death her reputation has been further enhanced with retrospectives including an exhibition at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1996. She was a woman devoted to her family as well as her art. This exhibition features early Borders landscapes, sparse and immediate, as well as later works: still lifes rich in colour and texture reminding us of the breadth of her artistic ability. There is youthful sense of enquiry throughout her work and a delight in her subject matter which is individual and always vivacious.

Portrait of David as a baby pastel on paper, 29 cms diameter 11


TheWhite Azalea oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cms 12


Menton gouache, 53 x 38 cms 13


Spring Trees gouache, 35 x 48 cms 14


Borders River gouache, 35.5 x 50.5 cms 15


CorsicanVillage lithograph, 22 x 30 cms 16


Church from theWindow pen & watercolour, 50 x 40 cms 17


Jug with Fruit (blue & red) lithograph, 28 x 45 cms 18


Flowers in a Teapot ink & watercolour, 24.5 x 32.5 cms 19


Summer Flowers in a GreenVase oil, 46 x 35.5 cms 20


White Geraniums, 1962 oil on board, 51 x 61 cms 21


Street in Menton – A Spanish Street gouache, 37 x 45.5 cms 22


The Angel Gabriel from the Chapel of St Jean,Treboul gouache, 36 x 27.5 cms 23


Alastair Michie (1921–2008) RWA, FRBS

The oldest of the Michie boys Alastair was born in St. Omer, France in 1921 attending French schools until the age of 12. When the family moved back to the Borders he continued his schooling in Hawick. After gaining a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art he followed in his father’s footsteps and studied architecture. While at university he enlisted in the University Air Squadron and at the outbreak of War he travelled to Florida to begin his training. Miraculously Alastair survived the War having served with distinction as a night fighter pilot over German lines. When the War ended he was reluctant to return to another three years of study and decided to apply his talent as a draughtsman to the art of illustration. He became an extremely successful fashion illustrator and designer, eventually gaining international recognition. It was at this stage that Alastair moved from London to Wareham in Dorset, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In 1963 Alastair and his mother made a trip to Venice which was to dramatically change his direction as an artist. At the Biennale he saw firsthand the abstract expressionist works brought over from NewYork.The sheer scale and energy of Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell were critical in his decision to become a painter and elicited a desire to paint in a way that the example set by his mother had not. Alastair met Mark Rothko after his friend John Plumb’s exhibition opening at the Axiom Gallery in London a few years later. It was an encounter that confirmed his belief that abstraction was a vehicle for universal human emotion. Although now into his 40s this experience engendered a drastic change in his artistic direction and triggered a desire to become a painter full time (much to the surprise of his family!). Alastair always distanced himself from his mother’s influence, proclaiming: “my mother’s work did not influence me”. However it is not farfetched to see, Anne Redpath’s feeling for colour and texture is evident in her son’s mature work. Alastair’s work whether painting or sculpture was always influenced by his own experience and environment. His work in both disciplines was always closely linked to the landscape and Jurassic coastline of his beloved Dorset. Images of land and sea viewed from above inspired him and his work Target from 2004, shows clearly the influence of his wartime experiences. Local beaches also proved to be a rich source of inspiration. On a first trip to Studland beach he discovered jagged pieces of metal, shrapnel and unexploded shells which were to inspire his striking series of sculptures he called Shrapnel. Endeavour, a 15 foot bronze commissioned by British Aerospace in Bristol is a mixture of organic and mechanic form: its dynamic shape evokes the striking silhouette of a fighter’s tailplane. A smaller version is available in this exhibition. Since ideas of structure and design ran parallel with more evocative and poetic ideas in his work, Alastair’s decision to sculpt seemed a natural progression. However it is for painting that Alastair is better known. His first exhibition was put on in Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1964 and featured richly coloured and textured acrylics (see Ammonite opposite) related to the American painters he admired. He enjoyed a major solo exhibition in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1972 and the art museums both in Sao Paulo and Rio acquired his work for their permanent collections. In 1979 there was a major exhibition of his sculpture at the Alwin Gallery, London. In 1982 he became a Royal West of England Academician and a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1994. He enjoyed a solo exhibition at the Mall Gallery in 1996 and another with Archeus Fine Art in 2000. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bournemouth University.

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Ammonite, c.1962 mixed media on canvas, 100 x 120 cms 25


Cool, c.2006 mixed media on canvas, 142 x 142 cms 26


Endeavour, 1989 bronze, edition 4/5, 20 cms height x 17 cms width African Head of a Girl, c.1960 cast aluminium, edition 2/5, 19 cms height 27


Fathom, c.1992 acrylic on board, 56 x 102 cms 28


Solo, c.2008 acrylic on board, 50 x 60 cms 29


Paper Roses, c.1987 acrylic on board, 57 x 71 cms 30


Margins XXI, c.2002 acrylic on board, 90 x 70 cms 31


Fishing Boats Chioggia, c. 1967 mixed media on board, 24 x 21 cms 32


Fashion Drawing I pastel, 53 x 30 cms Fashion Drawing II mixed media, 53 x 40 cms 33


Fashion Drawing III mixed media, 46 x 40 cms

Fashion DrawingVI mixed media, 39 x 33 cms

Fashion Drawing IV mixed media, 49 x 40 cms

Fashion DrawingVII mixed media, 54 x 39 cms

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Fashion Drawing XIII mixed media, 66 x 44 cms 35


david Michie (b.1928) OBE, RSA, FRSA

The youngest of the Michie boys, David was born in St. Raphael in 1928. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1947–53 under the painter, William Gillies. He was awarded a travelling scholarship upon graduating and travelled to Italy in 1953 with fellow painter and friend John Houston. On returning to Edinburgh he took up a post at the College of Art, becoming Head of Drawing and Painting from 1982–90. David’s first years immersed in the light and sun soaked landscape of the South of France were to have a lasting effect on him. Not only did it give him awareness of colour, but it gave him a taste for a life outside Scotland that was to inspire a love for travel he has kept throughout his life. On returning to Hawick at the age of eight he was placed in a landscape of a different sort, but the vistas of the Lammermuirs, fields and woods around Hawick did not fascinate him in the same way they captured his mother. David’s gaze was more focused, enticed by the smaller aspects of the natural world; a dragon fly skimming across a pond’s surface. David’s lack of interest in conventional landscape painting led him to create a visual language completely unique. Not constricted by academic drawing, his compositions of flora and fauna are simplified in form and often float in an ambiguous space of flattened colour and pattern as in Seed Pods and Cosmos. The world that the artist describes is abundant and diverse and appeals directly to our senses. His figure subjects, (images often inspired by foreign travel) which can feature subjects as diverse as jazz musicians, skateboarders or fisherman, are all perfect snapshots of the bizarre natural drama of human experience. His most recent works focus on the theme of Midnight Tango, and are made with the same wit, strong colour and harmonious design which David Michie has become renowned for. David followed in his mother’s footsteps choosing to live in Edinburgh and become a prominent member of the second generation of The Edinburgh School. Along with his friends and contemporaries Elizabeth Blackadder and John Houston, Michie’s contribution to Scottish painting is as an original image maker but also as a painter who believes in painting; a serious pursuit but one also which can give great pleasure. The 17 works in this exhibition offers a modest review of David’s career and includes two early Edinburgh cityscapes; letting us wonder again at the originality of the artist and see the world though his eyes. He is an elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Glasgow Institute and past President of the Society of Scottish Artists. He was awarded an OBE in 1997. His paintings are held in the collection of H.M. The Queen, The Scottish Arts Council, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and other major public collections of Scottish art.

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At the Harbour, Granton, 1953 oil on canvas, 56 x 69 cms 37


By the Bridge, Leith, 1953 oil on canvas, 69 x 56 cms 38


Rosemount Building, Gardners Crescent, 1964 oil on canvas, 86 x 112 cms 39


Skunk Cabbage Flowers – Arduaine, 1986 oil on canvas, 91.5 x 127 cms 40


Convolvulus Hawkmoth at a Flower, 1995 oil on canvas, 38 x 38 cms 41


Seed Pods and Cosmos, 2010 oil on canvas, 86 x 86 cms 42


Damsel Fly on a Leaf, 1995 oil on canvas, 38 x 38 cms 43


Trumpet Player at Cork, 1996 oil on canvas, 38 x 38 cms 44


George Melly at the Festival Theatre, 1998 oil on canvas, 38 x 38 cms 45


Bending over Backwards, 2011 oil on board, 20 x 20 cms Brief Encounter, 2011 oil on board, 20 x 20 cms 46


Dancing in the Bar Room, 2011 oil on board, 20 x 20 cms Kicking Out, 2011 oil on board, 20 x 20 cms 47


Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition the MICHIE FAMILY 4 – 30 JUNE 2012 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/themichiefamily Our warm thanks to all the Michie family for making the exhibition possible. ISBN 978-1-905146-67-3 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography by William Van Esland Photography 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.

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

Back cover: Anne Redpath, Borders Landscape, gouache, 51 x 35.5 cms 48




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