KATE DOWNIE
KATE DOWNIE Estuary 1-28 April 2015 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/katedownie
Cover
The Bay (detail) (cat. 15) oil on canvas, 110 x 200 cms
Kate Downie: Estuary Kate Downie has chosen the estuary as the motif for this new body of work as the real and thematic nub of her journey (a word overused in the ordinary narratives of life but appropriate for the creative process). The river’s ancient course, often altered, brings fertility to the coastal plains where our populations have grown. Where the pure and salt waters combine nature changes, birds feed before migration, woodland succumbs to shifting sands, transport becomes waterborne or the engineer battles to preserve the land. The river nurtures life on land and provides the departure point for exploration and safe anchorage on arrival: both farewell and welcome. Armies have traded insults from either bank and nations settled their borders north or south, east or west. An estuarine city can only be unified by bridges and in our modern era the bridge has become the supreme symbol of communication. All this has been subject matter for Downie for many years, most recently seen in her exhibition at Hopetoun House Zero to Fifty: The Road Bridge Diaries. For this exhibition her visits to Australia and Japan in the autumn of 2014 allow her to expand her theme. The inclusion of her painting Ofrenda, The Thames of 2013 (cat. 24) provides a real point of departure for the imagined journey of the convict ships from the Thames to Botany Bay just as the Scottish place names: Port Campbell, Lorne, Bell Brae and Erskine along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (places garlanded with eucalyptus trees, alive with the strange calls of bellbirds, whipbirds and the sulphur-crested cockatoo) talk back to the early settlers. In her monumental painting The Bay (cat. 15) a ghostly sailing ship crosses the heads of Sydney Harbour while at the riverine end aboriginal boats, impossibly fragile, point up the unequal clash of cultures. Between is the glorious, rich ancient colour of the place: the silt of millennia, the harsh rocks and dense bush all under an unforgiving sun. In Estuary Life (cat. 20) a garden looking on to the Parramatta is filled with Jacaranda, Frangipani, Rainbow Lorikeets and a Hills Hoist (an object guaranteed to set 2
Downie’s hand to reach for pen) forming an exotic screen beyond which the Cockatoo Island Ferry proceeds and pleasure yachts sail towards the great natural harbour. For Downie, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a much more potent symbol than the Opera House and as she made her drawing (cat. 2) standing in the shadow of the great pylon (designed by a Scottish firm and faced with granite) on the south side of the river recording the sweep of the ironwork heading north, memories of the Forth Bridges must have crowded in, despite the oppressive heat of her chosen standpoint and the presence of palm trees. In From Okayama to the Seto Sea (cat.37) a 17th century footbridge meanders across a wetland while in the far distance the Great Seto Bridge (the longest two-tiered bridge system in the world) is indicated with a few sure marks; two worlds: one slow and one swift, both culturally significant, form foreground and backdrop to the same watery landscape. Downie is one of the most subtle and persuasive colourists of her generation and she will only add to her palette from real experience. This gives her work a truth and authority, a right to transport us to the unfamiliar or provide an urgent reminder of where we have also been. She is known rightly as a supreme draftswoman. Her recent studies in China where she visited in 2011 and 2013 have added to her repertoire and the purchase of hand-made Chinese paper has required an approach informed by traditional oriental painting. The paper is remarkably robust: it can be crumpled and reworked and then folded into an A4 packet to be returned to the workshop in Zheng Zhou who will finally stretch the paintings and package them for return to Edinburgh for framing. Downie is too independent a spirit to be overcome by a tradition however and needing finally to paint in oil in a studio filled with paper she went in the opposite direction, commissioning assorted birch wood panels which can be butted together or used singly for the
support of the new oils, like Estuary Life. Her swift, controlled gesture as she draws with the brush is the same in different media but drawing is not the end in itself: it serves the painting and may be present only as a pictogram of a ship on the colour-field that is The Bay or be let loose to describe the tumult in Estuary Life. Her drawing is economical but powerfully suggestive: in Snow in the City of Gold, Kanazawa she looks out from the lowering shelter of a low building onto the bustle of people under umbrellas through a veil of soft snowflakes. The drawn line has a departure and an arrival. The mark is irrevocable and is the perfect illustration of chaos theory, a deliberate act but with consequences beyond the control of the artist; a direction of travel established but with no certain point of conclusion and an infinity of consequences. Faced with the eternity of the blank sheet the artist must begin and allow both chance and deliberation to be the twin guides. For Kate Downie the process might be partly mysterious but its success must be in its truth to her own experience. GUY PEPLOE
The Artist by the Murray River, Adelaide, South Australia. Photograph by Jen Clark. 3
Where the Rivers Meet the Seas A significant part of my childhood was spent close to the When I happened to mention these travel plans to the Ythan Estuary in the North-East of Scotland. This compelling artist George Donald last summer, he quipped “Ah I can body of water could switch from peaceful to treacherous in just picture you out there painting Uluru and Mount Fuji!” a flash, become narrow or wide, the very flow reversed with Although my initial response was mild irritation at being the tides or rage with intensity when the river was fed by typecast as an artist who simply painted obvious tourist distant rains. Early records of human habitation on the Ythan sights, his comment made me think even harder about my Estuary go way back to the Strandlooper, hunter-gatherers chosen area of exploration, and shed a fresh light on it. of the bronze age, attracted by the rich pickings of shellfish and migrating salmon as seals and seabirds have always I returned to my studio and wrote quickly on the wall: been. Like all estuaries, its river continually washes it afresh and the sea wipes the slate clean twice each day. Those ‘An estuary is a mountain in reverse.’ freshly washed beaches at low tide were where I made my first large drawings. Then I thought ‘What do I mean by that?’ This rather elliptical statement had nothing to do with reflections in the water Not so surprising then, that much of my adult life has or a suggestion of mountain forms as viewed from above. been spent in the company of the Forth Estuary, with all It was about erosion and deep time. Rivers are as old as its crossings, walks, islands and promontories. Estuaries the hills. Water erosion shapes our landscape as much as are where the land and the sea meet, and all life seems to tectonic upheavals and volcanic eruptions alter the earth’s want to join in. Cities spring up nearby, yet their tidal shores surface. Therefore what eventually meets the sea is (or can remain relatively untamed because humans can never be) the accumulation of dissolved mountain, carried by the control the pull and release of the moon’s gravity upon the rainwater and deposited at the river mouth. Suddenly, that seas. idea of slow rock erosion moved into a river and towards the sea made me very happy. My project last year as artist-in-residence at the Forth Road Bridge reinvigorated my interest in estuaries. Looking out The results of these thoughts and the subsequent journeys over the river from my Portacabin studio, I spent much time can be seen here in The Scottish Gallery. watching and thinking about migrations, both of birds and humans. The urge to travel and see other cultures is, I think, KATE DOWNIE a barely suppressed instinct in all of us, and one that I was overdue to exploit. It was with these thoughts that I set off last September on a trip to Australia and Japan with my partner Michael Wolchover.
4
5
1
Crossings, The Forth ink and watercolour on paper, 66 x 120 cms
6
7
8
2 Sydney Harbour Bridge ink and watercolour on paper, 70 x 138 cms 9
3 The Story Bridge ink and watercolour on paper, 70 x 138 cms 10
11
4 Story Bridge Adventure ink and watercolour on paper, 32 x 98 cms 12
13
5 Winding River (Bega) mixed media on wood, 46 x 64 cms 14
15
6 Oxbow Dawn ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 68 cms 16
7 The Winding River ink on paper, 32 x 92 cms 17
18
8 River Source, Uluru ink and watercolour on paper, 70 x 138 cms 19
20
9 River Source (study I) ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 68 cms
10 River Source (study II) watercolour, 15 x 41 cms 21
11 The Twitter Tree pencil and watercolour, 32 x 46 cms 22
12 Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, Tasmania pencil and watercolour, 32 x 46 cms 23
13 The Five Day River, Tasmania ink and watercolour on paper, 32 x 46 cms 24
14 Tamar Estuary, Tasmania ink on paper, 32 x 46 cms 25
15 The Bay oil on canvas, 110 x 200 cms 26
27
16 Little Suspension Bridge on the Great Ocean Road ink and watercolour on paper, 58 x 77 cms 28
29
17 Hunter’s Point, Sydney ink on paper, 25 x 68 cms 30
18 Luna Park and the Sydney Harbour Bridge ink on paper, 23 x 32 cms 31
19 Estuary Life, Parramatta (study I) ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 51 cms 32
20 Estuary Life (Parramatta Jacaranda Frangipani) oil on wood, 92 x 192 cms 33
21 Thames Study I watercolour on paper, 12.5 x 17.5 cms
22 Thames Study III watercolour on paper, 12.5 x 17.5 cms 34
23 Thames Study II watercolour on paper, 12.5 x 17.5 cms 35
24 Ofrenda, The Thames oil on canvas, 110 x 200 cms 36
37
25 The Kintai Bridge, Nishiki River ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 79 cms 38
26 Kintai Bridge from the Noodle Cafe ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 51 cms 39
27 The Seto Sea ink on paper, 25 x 34 cms 40
41
28 By the Seto Sea watercolour on paper, 17 x 30.5 cms 42
29 The Great Seto Bridge, Part I watercolour on paper, 17 x 33 cms
30 The Great Seto Bridge, Part II watercolour on paper, 17 x 33 cms 43
31 Hagi, Oranges and Pines ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 34 cms 44
32 Takayama, December ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 34 cms 45
33 Persimmons in the Snow ink and gouache on paper, 16 x 29 cms 46
34 Snow in the City of Gold (Kanazawa) ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 34 cms 47
35 Little Bridge, Hagi ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 51 cms 48
36 Zig-zag Bridge, Okayama ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 51 cms 49
37 From Okayama to the Seto Sea oil on wood, 64 x 184 cms 50
51
The Journey It was early spring when we arrived in Sydney, where the Parramatta River joins Jacksons Bay; from there we drove to the beautiful Sapphire Coast (The Tathra Inlet and the Bega Estuary) then flew to Adelaide (The Murray River, Australia’s longest, meets the sea at the Coorong). Later we journeyed from Cairns, discovering the winding creeks that sidle down through the Jurassic Daintree rainforest and mangrove swamps to a tropical sea, seething with startling life. We recovered from that wilderness with time in Brisbane, a modern multi-cultural city woven around the winding Brisbane River linked by great bridges, river paths and ferries. We then flew on past Melbourne to drive the great Ocean Road, where we discovered the quaint Erskine river meeting the wild surf of Southern Ocean. Before returning to Sydney we spent nine days travelling the length and breadth of
52
Tasmania by campervan and meeting with many wonderful artists along the way. Somehow in the midst of all this we flew into Alice Springs and walked close by the sacred sites and extraordinary rocks of Australia’s Red Centre. So in the end I did paint ‘Uluru’ as George expected, but as river source as much as rock. We finished the Australian leg of our journey where we started, but with a greater awareness of this incredible country. From Sydney we flew north over the full length of the west Pacific edge to winter in Tokyo, arriving on the 28th of November. It was wonderful to finally replace the Japan of my imagination with the reality of this month-long visit. Reaching the estuaries was harder in Japan, so instead we gave ourselves over to travel… Our first few days in Tokyo we
were guided by our friend Katagiri who helped us navigate the delights of this teeming metropolis, including a boat ride beneath countless bridges of the Sumida river on the way to the Pacific Ocean. After a few days we activated our Japan Rail Passes and began our epic journey: Okayama, Kurashiki, Naoshima, Kumamoto, Mount Aso, Hagi, Hiroshima, Mayajima, Kintaikyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Takayama then headed north as guests of our sculptor friends in Iwate – Hironori Katagiri and Kate Thomson, Aeneas Wilder and Naoko Obara. All along the way I made many ink drawings both from trains and during our daily walks – I was fascinated by the contrast between the bustling industrial cities and ‘constructednature’ tranquillity of the ancient gardens and temples.
In Japan I sought to study the bridge-over-water as art form as much as crossing, though the act of even a small crossing of a stone or wooden bridge in a 17th century garden delighted me at each discovery. We improved our skills at packing and unpacking cases, and negotiating the stations, though I believe the most complex place ever invented is Tokyo Station. The hospitality we received was wonderful, and one day we look forward to returning in the spring. KATE DOWNIE
53
Kate Downie RSA Kate Downie is an American born British landscape artist whose career over the past 30 years has spanned the media of painting, drawing, printmaking, performance and film. Trained at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, she has participated in international artists’ residencies since the 1980s, having made work in response to environments as diverse as a brewery, a maternity hospital, oil platforms, bridges, coastlines and estuaries. Over the past five years she has developed her use of Chinese Ink painting, interrogating the urban, industrial and romantic landscape of both modern China and Scotland through this medium. Last year she was appointed artist in residence for the Forth Road Bridge in
Kate Downie in her studio, February 2015. Photograph by Michael Wolchover. 54
its 50th year, which has in turn led to her recent research in Australia and Japan of estuarine environments. She is a member of the Royal Scottish Academy and her work is held in public and private collections worldwide. ‘I like to explore geographical crossroads and borders, intuiting the nature of passage and migration. At an abstract level I am fascinated by the accumulated marks within the landscape, which I explore mostly through my drawing – representing countless variations of certain activities, either in the city or across land and rivers. My work attempts to transform ordinary places into poetic acts of memory.’
Selected Biography 1958 1975-80 2004-06 2008
Born in North Carolina, USA Studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen President of the Society of Scottish Artists Member of the Royal Scottish Academy
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 Estuary, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Shared Vision: works inspired by ink painting traditions in China, Stirling University, touring to Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen 2014 Zero to Fifty: The Road Bridge Diaries, Hopetoun House, Queensferry, West Lothian Scotland Outside, China Within, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen 2013 A Walk Through Resonant Landscape, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh The Royal Glasgow Institute, Kelly Gallery 2011 The Concrete Hour, Drawing installation, Where Where Art Space, Beijing, China New Paintings, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Bridging the Gap, Invited Guest Artist, Pittenweem Arts Festival Dialogue with the Land, The Burgh Hall Culture Centre, Linlithgow 2010 Printworks, 21 years of Printmaking, The Watermill, Aberfeldy Scotland 2009-10 The Coast Road Diaries, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh touring Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries and Duff House, Aberdeenshire 2008 The Sea Room, The Watermill Gallery, Aberfeldy 2007 The Red Coast, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2006 The Watermill Gallery, Aberfeldy, Scotland 2005 Lazaret Ollandini Foundation, Corsica 2003 Routes des Travaux, Gallerie La Marge, Ajaccio, Corsica, Festival of Scottish Culture Titanic Shores, Gracefield Studios, Dumfries 2002 The Vanished Road, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen 2001 East Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh 1999 The Bridge, The Project Room, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh Intaglio Paintings and Prints, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh 1997 Dusk Electric, Thornton-Bevan Arts, London New Landscapes, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh 1995 Deviant Taxis, Colour Monoprints, Strathfest ’95, Cogarth Castle, Aberdeenshire WASPS Studio Gallery, Edinburgh Festival 1993-96 The Mother Pool, The People’s Palace, Glasgow and a major UK Tour of Museums and Galleries 1990-91 Urban Circus, Tour - Collins Gallery, Glasgow; Cleveland Gallery, Middlesbrough; McManus Gallery, Dundee and Artspace Gallery, Aberdeen 1987 New Paintings, Galleri Grijsdalen, Denmark and Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
55
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015 Scottish Drawing, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh Visual Arts Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh 2014 A Capital View: The Art of Edinburgh City Arts Centre, Edinburgh 2013 Marked – Drawing Now, Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, Hunter Valley, Austrailia Postcards to Japan, International House of Japan, Tokyo (touring) The Scottish Show, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall, England 4+ Exhibition, Plockton Gallery, West Highlands, Scotland Second XU CUN Arts Festival Exhibition, Shangxi Province, China 2011 Intersection, Chinese and International Red Gate Residency Artists exhibition, Nova Art Coordinates, Beijing Monotypes, Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, Glasgow Ripple Effect – New Monoprints from France, Norway and Scotland 2010 The Haymarket Pibroch, Drawing Installation, Invited Artist at 184th RSA annual exhibition 2009-10 The Wych Elm Project, Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh/Graal press co-published 2008-09 The North Sea project, SSA/Attic Salt Gallery Edinburgh Sand Kulturhus, Kopervik Kulturhus, Rogaland Kunstsenter Stavanger/Norway Coast Festival, Banff and Portsoy Boat Festival, Aberdeenshire 2007 40 Years of Printmaking from Edinburgh Printmakers 1987 to 2007 Modern Print Masters, Watermill Gallery Aberfeldy 2006 The Royal Scottish Academy/The Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh Contemporary Scottish Artists, Chambers Gallery, London 2005-06 The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2005, Jerwood Space, London; Pittville Gallery, Cheltenham; Rennie Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow 2005 WASPS Exchange, ARC Gallery, Chicago 2003 Moving Solutions – SSA, Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland SSA Select, The Park Gallery, Falkirk 2000 Living Proof, Joyce Gunn-Cairns and Kate Downie, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh Printmaking Present, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries 1999-2000 Cleveland Drawing Biennial, European Tour 1999 A Sense of Identity, Department of International Development, East Kilbride Girl Power, Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen The Fine Art of Medicine, Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow 1998 Twin Images II, The Fine Art Society, London 1997 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1996-97 The Motor Show - Powered Vehicles in British Painting, UK Tour Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry: Plymouth City Museum and Gallery; Stockport Art Gallery; Wrexham Arts Centre; Turnpike Gallery, Leigh 1995 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling; Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie 1993 Scottish Painting, Flowers East Gallery, London Through Women’s Eyes – Contemporary Scottish Women Artists, City Arts Centre, Edinburgh
56
1992-93
1992 1991 1990 1989
Figure in the City - Urban Themes in New Scottish Painting, Touring Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Mia Joosten Gallery, Amsterdam; Musiekatelier Kunstactivieten, Maastricht; Y’art and P Gallery, Utrecht; BP Gallery, Brussels; Artspace, Aberdeen and Oriel Gallery, Cardiff Adam & Co/Spectator Exhibition, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (Major Prize-winner) The Edinburgh Suite – Portfolio of Prints, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop/Scottish Tour SSA Centenary Exhibition, RSA Galleries, Edinburgh; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries Painting the Forth Bridge, 369 Gallery, Edinburgh; Scottish Tour Soft Machine, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop 57 Degrees 10 Minutes North, Aberdeen Art Gallery; 369 Gallery, Edinburgh
COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Asset Management Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Aberdeen University Borders General Hospital Grampian Regional Council Adam & Co, Merchant Bank Allied Breweries Art in Healthcare, Scotland British Broadcasting Corporation Cleveland Art Gallery, Middlesbrough City of Edinburgh Council Creswell Maternity Hospital, Dumfries East and Midlothian NHS Trust Edinburgh City Arts Centre Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art
AWARDS 2013 2000/2013 2010 2007 2005 2011 1995 1987
Gracefield Museums and Galleries, Dumfries Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen HM the Queen Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow Kirkcaldy Art Gallery and Museum Moray House College of Education Museum of London New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge Rietveld Kunst Academie, Amsterdam Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Royal Bank of Scotland Royal Scottish Academy Scottish Arts Council Scottish Trades Union Congress Scottish Provident The University of Edinburgh
Creative Scotland Quality Production Award The Hope Scott Trust Artists Award William Gilles Bequest, Royal Scottish Academy Friends of the RSA Research Award Shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize Riverside Gallery Award, RSW 131st Annual Exhibition Scottish Arts Council Bursary Award, SAC Amsterdam Studio Major Painting Prize, RSA Student Exhibition/Latimer Award RSA Winner of Artists and Illustrators Magazine Prize, The Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Gallery, London First Prize Spectator/Adam & Co National Art Exhibition/Competition Greenshield Foundation Scholarship (twice) Aberdeen Artists Exhibition, Major prize Winner 57
58
59
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition KATE DOWNIE Estuary 1-28 April 2015 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/katedownie ISBN: 978-1-910267-14-1 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Printed by Barr Colour Printers Photography by Michael Wolchover The Artist would like to thank: The Scottish Gallery Framing: Edinburgh Arts and Brien Nicholson Writing: Guy Peploe Travel arrangements: Ian Dickson Travel, Sheena Byrne Australia: Barb Kempnich, Andre Tallen, Kevin Condon, Peter Hill, Paul Zika, Raymond Arnold, Jane Wilson, Luke Scibberas, Ruth Thomas, Jen Clark, Hilary Hermann, Kevin Palmer, Elizabeth MacGregor Japan: Hironori Katagiri, Kate Thomson, Taeko Seki, Aeneas Wilder, Japan Rail‌ and the kindness of strangers everywhere. All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk 60
1
2