Sylvia Wishart

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(11 February 1936 – 4 December 2008) was a Scottish landscape artist.

Early life

Wishart was born and raised in Stromness, Orkney. She grew up as a neighbor to poet

George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life and caree ...

Career

Wishart worked in the post office, but painted as a hobby. She was eventually persuaded to train at

Gray's School of Art Gray's School of Art is the Robert Gordon University's art school, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of the oldest established fine art institutions in Scotland and one of Scotland's five art schools today, and ranked among the Top 20 ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. From 1969 to 1987 she taught painting and drawing at Gray's. Her drawings illustrated George Mackay Brown's ''An Orkney Tapestry'', published in 1969. In 2005, Wishart was made a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1992, 2007 and 2011, the Pier Art Centre in Orkney held shows of her works. Many of her paintings and drawings depicted landscapes and seascapes in Orkney, especially views of

Hoy Sound Hoy Sound is a body of salt water subject to tidal currents situated south of the town of Stromness in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. The sound lies north of the island of Hoy and to the south of Mainland Orkney. To the west are the open w ...

from her cottage window. Later works incorporate mixed media techniques. Artists' patron Margaret Gardiner was a friend.

Personal life and legacy

Wishart and Brown had a long friendship involving frequent drinking, occasional violence, and Roman Catholicism (they converted together). She died in 2008, aged 72 years. Works by Wishart are in the collections of Robert Gordon University, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Pier Art Centre, the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, the

Scottish Maritime Museum The Scottish Maritime Museum is an industrial museum with a Collection Recognised as Nationally Significant to Scotland. It is located at two sites in the West of Scotland in Irvine and Dumbarton, with a focus on Scotland's shipbuilding heritage ...

, and other institutions. A book about Wishart, ''Sylvia Wishart: A Study'', was published in 2012. Also in 2012, the Royal Scottish Academy held an exhibition of Wishart's works. A documentary film, ''Reflections – The Life and Art of Sylvia Wishart'' (2011), featured interviews with her colleagues and friends.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wishart, Sylvia 1936 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Scottish women artists Alumni of Gray's School of Art British art teachers People from Orkney