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Wester Ross

Collection: Gray's School of Art Collection
Object Type: Print
Artist/Maker: Walker, Frances
Media/Materials: ink on paper

Description:

A black and white artist print featuring a Wester Ross landscape.


Before arriving in Aberdeen to become a tutor at Gray's School of Art in 1958, Frances Walker taught as a visiting teacher in schools in the Western Isles. This would represent a distinct change of environment compared with Kirkcaldy, where she grew up. These early trips to the Isles and wild rugged coast lines have remained an indelible inspiration for her throughout the years, culminating in the purchase of a Category B listed cottage in Tiree which she would use as a base to work from. This inspiration and skill with fine line would be generously shared and passed on to generations of Gray's School of Art fine art students during her teaching years and many remember fondly her organised trip for students to Achmelvich, north of Loch Inver.

Frances Walker taught at Gray's School of Art from 1958 to 1985. Since her retirement, she has divided her time between Aberdeen and the Western Isles. In 2002 she was invited to exhibit her major solo show 'Place Observed in Solitude' in Aberdeen Art Gallery. This retrospective exhibition included a series of stunning new works inspired by the desolate landscape of the Antarctic and South Georgia.

"For me, art is all about being able to communicate with someone I haven't even met."

In 2014 the artist was awarded the prestigious Churchill Award along with others including Dame Judi Dench and John Rutter.

Artist and playwright John Byrne described painter Frances Walker as "modest, quiet and with a cool, burning talent quite unmatched anywhere in Britain."
Object Number: ABDRG2012.79

A donation to Robert Gordon University by Miss Isobel Gordon.