Katie Horsman - The Scottish Gallery

Katie Horsman (1911-1998)Centenary Exhibition2 - 30 July 2011The Scottish Gallery16 Dundas StreetEdinburghEH3 6HZEmail mail@scottish-gallery.co.ukwww.scottish-gallery.co.ukTHESCOTTISHGALLERYCONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842Front Cover: 1 Crofts in the Hills gouache 22 x 32 cmsOpposite: 2 Basses-Alpes gouache 43 x 52 cms

Photograph: Anne Redpath and Katie Horsman on Skye, 1946

ForewordKatie Horsman is a name now synonymous with the development of Scottish pottery in the post war era, and although best known for this, herskill as a draughtsman and painter cannot be overlooked. The drawings and paintings included in this exhibition bring to light Horsman’s skill as aperceptive and often amusing illustrator and a watercolour painter of great sensitivity.Directly after her graduation from the Royal College of Art, Horsman travelled in Europe and fell in love with the alpine scenery surroundingSisteron and Basses-Alpes. A series of drawings from 1938 records the trip. Drawings mostly executed in pen and wash show her keen interestin landscape as well as architecture, two themes which were to reoccur throughout her work. A pivotal moment in her career was a trip to Skyein 1946, accompanied by her close friend Anne Redpath and her son, David Michie and girlfriend (future wife) Eileen. This trip saw the beginningof a significant series of gouaches of the island, which in their structure, colouring, freer handling and charm owe as much to her response of anewly discovered landscape as to the company of the great artist.Horsman’s energetic use of line gives a fantastic vitality to her paintings. Rooftops and supporting walls often lean out at precarious anglesas if trying to escape from the page. This liveliness is not restricted to her use of line but is also seen in her use of colour. In her gouachesketch Victoria Street the shop fronts are painted in crude, vibrant blocks of colour. Her brushstrokes, often free in execution, spill out passedtheir intended outlines; her intention is to capture the essence of the scene, rather than focus on specific details. This simplification of form isprevalent throughout her work post 1946. Horsman relishes in the sweeping line of a distant shore, or a gable end against sky. Perhaps we canput this down to her career as a potter; even in paint it is the shape, the feel of her subject which is of most importance.This exhibition, organized to coincide with the centenary of Horsman’s birth, is an opportunity to revaluate Horsman as an artist of the ScottishSchool, whose love of colour and landscape shows direct influence not only from Redpath but from Gillies and Wilson too. Fondly rememberedby all her knew her, Horsman was a colourful, if not eccentric character whose gift to future generations is the art work she has left behind.Tommy Zyw The Scottish Gallery

4 Grassmarket gouache 40.5 x 44 cms

5 Church and Monument gouache 23 x 35.5 cms6 Edge of Mountains and Trees gouache & ink 42 x 46 cms

7 Road into the Hills ink 37.5 x 55 cms

8 Neist Point, Skye pen, ink & watercolour 39 x 56.5 cms

9 Churchyard watercolour & ink 25 x 35.5 cms

10 Hillside Buildings pen, ink & wash 30.5 x 20 cms

11 Winter Landscape watercolour & ink 34 x 49.5 cms

12 Pentland Snow gouache 34 x 48 cms

13 Mews, Edinburgh gouache 46 x 56 cms

14 Rooftop View gouache 34.5 x 46.5 cms

15 The Road into Town gouache 27.5 x 40.5 cms

16 In the Shadow of the Mountain gouache 36.5 x 44.5 cms

17 Towards the Grassmarket pen & ink wash 42 x 49 cms

18 Gardeners watercolour & ink 12 x 17.5 cms

19 Hilltop Ruin gouache 30.5 x 40.5 cms

20 Sisteron gouache 29 x 27 cms

21 Colorado Mountain gouache, ink & pastel 40 x 58 cms

22 Trees on the Mountainside gouache 36.5 x 49.5 cms

23 Hamlet gouache 24.5 x 34 cms

24 Makar’s Courtyard, Old Town gouache 57.5 x 46 cms

25 Borders Landscape gouache 37 x 52 cms

26 Harbour Scene gouache 25 x 36.5 cms

27 Mountain Pines watercolour & ink 36 x 49 cms

28 American Hill Town gouache 41 x 46 cms

29 Two Cats pen drawing 23 x 18 cms

30 Garden Path green ink drawing 25 x 36.5 cms

31 Corrie Lochan gouache 33 x 47.5 cms

32 Towards Suilven gouache 40.5 x 46.5 cms

33 View from the Rooftop gouache 25 x 35 cms

34 Farm Buildings ink etching 12 x 17.5 cms

35 Mountain Sketch watercolour 38 x 56.5 cms

36 Harbour watercolour & ink 35 x 50 cms

37 Aultbea gouache 37 x 51 cms

38 Mountain Landscape gouache 31.5 x 40.5 cms

Kathleen Finlay Horsman MBE (1911 – 1998)Born in North London 1911StudiedHornsey School of ArtRoyal College of Art, London (Graduated 1936)1938 Trip to Europe, including Sisteron and Basses-AlpesLecturedLiverpool School of Art1943 Lecturer in Design and Ceramics, Edinburgh College of Art1947 Member of SSA1953, 1955 & 1957 Teaching posts at University of Colorado (Summer School)1955 Teaching placement at Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana1961 Teaching at Scripps College, Claremont, California (Summer School)1964 & 1965 Teaching at University of California, Santa Barbara (Summer School)1971 Pottery Exhibition at Scottish Arts Council1976 Retired from Edinburgh College of Art1976 Awarded MBE1998 Died in Edinburgh1999 Memorial Show at The Scottish GalleryThe Scottish Gallery gratefully acknowledge the generous assistance and valuable informationprovided to us by David Michie and Douglas Davies in mounting this exhibition