Katie Horsman - The Scottish Gallery

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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
Page 1: Katie Horsman (1911-1998)Centenary
Page 6: 5 Church and Monument gouache 23 x
Page 9 and 10: 8 Neist Point, Skye pen, ink & wate
Page 11 and 12: 10 Hillside Buildings pen, ink & wa
Page 13 and 14: 12 Pentland Snow gouache 34 x 48 cm
Page 15 and 16: 14 Rooftop View gouache 34.5 x 46.5
Page 17 and 18: 16 In the Shadow of the Mountain go
Page 19 and 20: 18 Gardeners watercolour & ink 12 x
Page 21 and 22: 20 Sisteron gouache 29 x 27 cms
Page 23 and 24: 22 Trees on the Mountainside gouach
Page 25 and 26: 24 Makar’s Courtyard, Old Town go
Page 27 and 28: 26 Harbour Scene gouache 25 x 36.5
Page 29 and 30: 28 American Hill Town gouache 41 x
Page 31 and 32: 30 Garden Path green ink drawing 25
Page 33 and 34: 32 Towards Suilven gouache 40.5 x 4
Page 35 and 36: 34 Farm Buildings ink etching 12 x
Page 37 and 38: 36 Harbour watercolour & ink 35 x 5
Page 39 and 40: 38 Mountain Landscape gouache 31.5

Katie Horsman - The Scottish Gallery

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