Kate Downie (born 1958) is a United States-born Scottish artist who works in painting, printmaking and drawing. She is known for her landscape painting, and her works are held by Glasgow's main public galleries. Downie was born in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

in 1958, to a Scottish father and English mother. She came to Scotland with her family when she was seven. She studied art in Aberdeen, and worked in several countries thereafter, including the United States and Holland, but is based in Edinburgh and known for her works portraying the Scottish landscape. Downie works in a range of media, including oil and acrylic painting, ink painting, collage, and lithography From 2004 to 2006, Downie was President of the Society of Scottish Artists. In 2005 she was shortlisted for the

Jerwood Drawing Prize The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is the United Kingdom's leading award in contemporary drawing. Initially awarded in 1991 as the Malvern Open Drawing Prize, it became the Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition in 1994, and then the Jerwood Drawing ...

. In the late 2000s, she created Coast Road Diaries, documenting a two-year journey around Scotland; the works formed a travelling exhibition that was critically acclaimed. A member of the Royal Scottish Academy, in 2010 she travelled to China to study ink painting, returning in 2011 and again in 2013. Works resulting from these residencies were displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Royal Glasgow Institute's Kelly Gallery. In 2014, Downie was commissioned as an artist-in-residence at the

Forth Road Bridge The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinbur ...

, to create an exhibition and work to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the bridge's construction. She described her role as conducting "an in-depth interview" with the structure, in order to gather the information and ideas to inform her work. She also climbed to the top of the structure, and spent two months working in an improvised studio directly under the bridge. Described by journalist Jan Patience as "sure, deft and fearless", examples of Downie's art are held in the

Glasgow Museums Glasgow Museums is the group of museums and galleries owned by the City of Glasgow, Scotland. They hold about 1.6 million objects including over 60,000 art works, over 200,000 items in the human history collections, over 21,000 items relating to ...

, including figurative works, such as ''12 Minute Baby'' (1993) and urban landscapes such as ''Blue Night, Yellow Roof'' (1991). In late September 2014 Downie set off for 3 months of travel in Australia and Japan, carrying out research of river systems, estuaries and bridges on the edge of the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. This culminated in a 2nd major solo exhibition with the Scottish Gallery ''Estuary'' in Edinburgh in April 2015. That same month also featured a two-person show ‘Drawing on the Landscape’ at Cobalt Contemporary in Pittenweem. Both shows were reviewed by the Times, The Scotsman and

Studio International ''Studio International'' is an international illustrated contemporary art magazine, formerly published in hard copy in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Ki ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downie, Kate 1958 births Living people 20th-century Scottish painters 21st-century Scottish painters 20th-century Scottish women artists 21st-century Scottish women artists Presidents of the Society of Scottish Artists Royal Scottish Academicians Scottish women painters