Press Release
3rd February 2009
1st RSA William Littlejohn Watercolour Award Winner Announced
The Royal Scottish Academy is delighted to announce that Laura Sutherland has been awarded the first RSA William Littlejohn Watercolour Award, £2,000.
Laura Sutherland, 25, was born and brought up Dingwall, Ross-shire, where she attended Dingwall Academy. She moved to Edinburgh in 2001 to study at the Edinburgh College of Art, completing her MFA in Drawing and Painting in June 2008, and is currently Artist in Residence at Fettes College.
With an interest in exploring new directions using traditional materials and techniques, Laura works in a variety of media; often creating installations which collage 2D works, sculpture and large scale watercolours painted directly onto architecture. Laura intends to use the award to travel the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, working towards a new body of work which will focus on ‘space and place’.
Laura Sutherland comments:
“I am delighted to be the inaugural winner of the RSA William Littlejohn Watercolour Award, it will allow the opportunity for me to take a fresh perceptive of my study of 'space and place', and I am thoroughly looking forward to it”
Funded by the William Littlejohn Bequest, and administered by the Royal Scottish Academy, this £2,000 prize will be awarded annually. It is open to painters in watercolour, born or currently living and working in Scotland, and should be used to fund a period of research for a new body of work.
Born in Arbroath in 1929, William Littlejohn studied Fine Art at Dundee College of Art, before becoming Lecturer in (and then Head of) Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, retiring in 1991. After his death in 2006, he left the entire contents of his studio to the Royal Scottish Academy. As well as numerous oils, watercolours and drawings there was also a wealth of sketch-books, notebooks and objects; many of which were put on public display at a solo exhibition in the Royal Scottish Academy building in late 2008.
Colin Greenslade, Programme Director, comments:
“Laura was chosen because of her interesting and innovative use of watercolour, using a traditional format but still pushing boundaries. We know that Bill would have been delighted with her unusual and beautiful use of the medium.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
1) Images of Laura and of her work available on request.
2) William Littlejohn was elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1973, the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1989 and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1990.
3) Aims of the Royal Scottish Academy:
- To uphold the best practice in contemporary Scottish Art and Architecture.
- To maintain a Collection, Archive and Library relevant to the history and activities of the Academy and to make these accessible to the public.
- To encourage and support emerging Artists and Architects
- To inform national debates on a range of visual, cultural and educational issues.
For further information or images please contact:
Kirsty Dickson, Press Assistant, 0131 225 6671 or press@royalscottishacademy.org
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The Royal Scottish Academy is a charity registered in Scotland (No. SC004198)
Registered address: The RSA, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL.
