Mary Armour RSA 1903-2000

Mary Armour was affectionately regarded as the last of the Glasgow Girls and was arguably the most noted pioneering female artist of her generation; she was renowned for her big, bold, brighter-than-a-summer day floral studies. Scotland will certainly be a much drabber place without her. Down to earth is the phrase that keeps popping up whenever her name is mentioned. Daunting but kind- hearted is another.

Her career began at Glasgow School of Artin1920. Brought up in Blantyre, not the most inspirational of surroundings, she none the less maintained in later life that the greyness of its streets flowers playing such a key role led to in her work, although her father had been a keen gardener and an uncle an enthusiastic botanist.

The latter had carried little book called Culpepper’s Almanac, richly illustrated with lovely drawings, and, as little girl, she would copy them. Once she began Hamilton Academy, art mistress and painter Penelope Beaton encouraged her and was, she often reminded people, the one person who deserved the credit for pointing her on the road to success. Beaton had been responsible for persuading her father (though he had six children to support on 35 shillings per week) that his talented daughter should go to art school.

Mary Armour won a bursary to stay on for five years and it was there she met her future husband William, who would eventually become head of drawing and painting.

They were married in 1927, and he died in 1979 after 52 years of marriage in which she maintained they never had a quarrel. At first they lived in Milngavie where they started the local art club. In 1953 they moved to Kilbarchan where the weaver’s cottage she loved so much was home until 1995.

Her lifelong passion was the art school itself where she had taught from 1951-1962. On her retirement at 60 she became a governor and subsequently honorary president. Mary Armour considered her painting “an intellectual pursuit”, like writing or composing. “The thinking takes far more time than the actual manipulation of the oil paint” she said. She was clever, no doubt.

So much so that in 1958 she barn-stormed the male-dominated Royal Scottish Academy to become only its second female Academician. At the time she was teaching still life subjects at Glasgow School of Art, when husband William was principal of the drawing and painting department. Up until then Mary Armour had been known more for landscape students than the big still-life canvasses which were finally to establish her as one of the greats of her time.

She earned her first serious attention in the mid-1930s when she carried off the prestigious Guthrie Award for the best work by a young painter exhibiting at the RSA. In 1940 she was accepted as an associate member. Always keen to keep her hand in and encourage others, even after she had stopped painting herself due to failing eyesight, she was a stalwart of Paisley Art Institute where she became honorary vice-president.

The big ground floor room of her house in Kilbarchan’s Gateside Place, which had doubled up as a studio, had jugs of all shapes and sizes which festooned the rafters. Most had featured in her vibrant still-life studies and in recent years she went to great lengths to pair them up with the paintings in which they had a starring role, the owners of the work receiving a telephone call or note through the post inquiring if they would like to have “their jug”.

Officially, she stopped painting in 1988, although one canvas exists which is dated 1990 — a still-life she started two years earlier and tinkered away at off and on until it was finished. It has never been exhibited. She was elected honorary president of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1983.

She was an enthusiastic supporter of young artists and until the end she continued to keep an interest in the art world. She left a legacy which will remain in place for years to come through an art school fellowship and other awards and prizes she created to support future generations.

RSA Obituary, transcribed from the 2000 Annual Exhibition Catalogue

Banner image: Mary Armour RSA, Still Life with Blue Vase Detail, RSA Collections