Kate Downie RSA
Study for Three Bridge Evening, 2021-22
Etching with copperplate colour and Chinese seal print on Hahnemühle paper
Image: 52 x 74 cm
Paper: 71 x 90 cm
Paper: 71 x 90 cm
Edition of 40
Currency:
This work is priced unframed. Please enquire for framing options. 'For over 25 years I have been drawing the bridge crossings over the Forth Estuary. In 2018 I was invited...
This work is priced unframed. Please enquire for framing options.
'For over 25 years I have been drawing the bridge crossings over the Forth Estuary. In 2018 I was invited to create a “Three Bridge Evening’ for the City Arts Centre’s permanent collection in Edinburgh and I am delighted that this work has been selected for inclusion in the Dovecot/Fleming Collection exhibition Scottish Women Artists-250 Years of Challenging Perception.
Of course, creating such a complex drawing required many site visits and drawing research. In 2018 the Queensferry Crossing was fairly new, and it was a fascinating task to discover a viewpoint which encompassed all three bridges whilst emphasizing their differences in engineering principles, aesthetics and period. This steel plate etching Study for Three Bridge Evening was based on one of these research drawings and was created in 2021-22 as a co-publication with Glasgow Print Studio, where I was honoured to work closely with master printer Stuart Duffin RSA to produce this edition of 40 prints’
Kate Downie RSA was born in North Carolina but raised from the age of 7 in Scotland. She studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before travel and residencies took her to the United States, The Netherlands, France, Japan and Norway. As a landscape painter/printmaker, she studies the relationship of the human co-existence/dissonance within nature, often defined by good draughtsmanship and a sense of movement. Downie has established studios in places as diverse as a brewery, a maternity hospital, an oil rig and an island underneath the Forth Rail Bridge. She has taught both in art colleges and universities and has directed major public and community art projects since 1987.
As President to the Society of Scottish Artist from 2004 to 2006, Downie co-curated contemporary visual art projects of international standing, including an exchange exhibition with Indian artists and the Bodyparts live art Festival at the RSA in Edinburgh. Her work appears in many public and corporate collections including the BBC; Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art; Gracefield Art Gallery, Dumfries; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Rietveld Kunst Academie, Amsterdam; City of Edinburgh Council; The Royal Collection; Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow & New Hall College Art Collection in Cambridge. In 2005 the artist was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, and in 2008 became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. Kate exhibits regularly with The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, with her next major solo exhibition scheduled for the Edinburgh Festival in 2026.
Like the Scottish artists Joan Eardley and DY Cameron in the last century, Downie has spent the past 30 years exploring an artistic vision for the extremes of a Scottish urban/industrial landscape as well as Scotland’s coastal ‘edge-scapes’ beyond the cities. Downie re-located to Fife in 2018, establishing Birchtree Studios in 2019, which has since become a hub for creative collaborations both locally and internationally.
- The Artist
'For over 25 years I have been drawing the bridge crossings over the Forth Estuary. In 2018 I was invited to create a “Three Bridge Evening’ for the City Arts Centre’s permanent collection in Edinburgh and I am delighted that this work has been selected for inclusion in the Dovecot/Fleming Collection exhibition Scottish Women Artists-250 Years of Challenging Perception.
Of course, creating such a complex drawing required many site visits and drawing research. In 2018 the Queensferry Crossing was fairly new, and it was a fascinating task to discover a viewpoint which encompassed all three bridges whilst emphasizing their differences in engineering principles, aesthetics and period. This steel plate etching Study for Three Bridge Evening was based on one of these research drawings and was created in 2021-22 as a co-publication with Glasgow Print Studio, where I was honoured to work closely with master printer Stuart Duffin RSA to produce this edition of 40 prints’
Kate Downie RSA was born in North Carolina but raised from the age of 7 in Scotland. She studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen before travel and residencies took her to the United States, The Netherlands, France, Japan and Norway. As a landscape painter/printmaker, she studies the relationship of the human co-existence/dissonance within nature, often defined by good draughtsmanship and a sense of movement. Downie has established studios in places as diverse as a brewery, a maternity hospital, an oil rig and an island underneath the Forth Rail Bridge. She has taught both in art colleges and universities and has directed major public and community art projects since 1987.
As President to the Society of Scottish Artist from 2004 to 2006, Downie co-curated contemporary visual art projects of international standing, including an exchange exhibition with Indian artists and the Bodyparts live art Festival at the RSA in Edinburgh. Her work appears in many public and corporate collections including the BBC; Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art; Gracefield Art Gallery, Dumfries; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Rietveld Kunst Academie, Amsterdam; City of Edinburgh Council; The Royal Collection; Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow & New Hall College Art Collection in Cambridge. In 2005 the artist was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, and in 2008 became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. Kate exhibits regularly with The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, with her next major solo exhibition scheduled for the Edinburgh Festival in 2026.
Like the Scottish artists Joan Eardley and DY Cameron in the last century, Downie has spent the past 30 years exploring an artistic vision for the extremes of a Scottish urban/industrial landscape as well as Scotland’s coastal ‘edge-scapes’ beyond the cities. Downie re-located to Fife in 2018, establishing Birchtree Studios in 2019, which has since become a hub for creative collaborations both locally and internationally.
- The Artist
