Midge Gourlay, Scottish artist.

http://www.portappinstudio.co.uk/artists/midge/biography

Please visit her website, there are many examples of her extraordinary work.
Midge Gourlay is a textile artist and teacher, trained at Glasgow School of Art and specialising in embroidered and woven textiles.

Her work is mainly inspired by West Highland land and seascapes and by regular visits to the Corbières region of southwest France. She uses techniques which include dyeing, fabric manipulation with machine embroidery, paint and handmade silk paper.
At the start of the twentieth century a group of young women worked and studied together in Glasgow. They specialized in needlecraft, embroidery, jewelry making, metal craft and design. Their work was intricate and decorative. These women became affectionately known as ‘The Glasgow Girls’, they were contemporaries of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his friend and fellow architect/artist Herbert McNair. Two of the leading lights of this movement were sisters Margaret and Frances MacDonald who married Mackintosh and McNair. 

And the reason all of this is relevant is because these women brought needlecraft and embroidery out from the shadows and made it part of mainstream art. Prior to this movement needlecraft was thought of as something genteel ladies did to pass the time, it was not considered ‘art’.

 Needlecraft was the poor relation in the art world; it was low status art and could not compete with ‘proper art’ produced by male artists. Margaret and Frances MacDonald, and their fellow Glasgow Girls changed this, their work was clever, intricate and original, it made its mark on the art world. They paved the way for contemporary artists like Midge Gourlay. 

It’s no coincidence that Midge trained at the same college, Glasgow College of Art’, as the Glasgow Girls attended over 100 years ago. 

I think this is truly a case of ‘you reap what you sow’…………….Her work is so sought after and respected various Churches have commissioned her to produce spcial pieces for them.

Art, Glasgow Girls revisited.

When I first discovered  ''Art Sunday'' I tended to stick to what I knew, which is Scottish Art. I remember Lina telling me she really liked these posts because Scottish Art is still relitivly unknown outside  Scotland. Her knowledge and understanding of ''The Arts'' far suppassed any thing I could ever  aspire too but still she took a genuine interest in what ever we posted. This particular post was one she contacted me about, I emailed her the original piece of work it was taken from and she wrote thanking me. And so..............because I know she liked it... I'm just re-posting the links to the original, the blog and the album, both exactly as they were when she read them in july last year. I was going to 're-hash' it a bit but then decided not to, this one is for Lina and this is how she liked it. 

Where ever you are Lina this one is for you because I know you liked it.

delete reply kathyinozarks wrote on Nov 8, '09 love your choices, beautiful post

delete reply madisonpooface wrote on Nov 8, '09 Loretta these are beautiful works, I really love the top one, what is that. I see Lina's taste for sure. It is so nice how we are all remembering how she influenced us. Your post is great and your thoughts of her are special> I am so glad that Nemo did this. I do love the last one the lass is so very Scottish.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Nov 8, '09 I remember these and hope Lina can see them.

delete reply philsgal7759 wrote on Nov 8, '09 I like the softness in color and texture. The bottom one is especially lovely

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Nov 7, '09 this is beautifull i have you added to the tour thanks again :) http://nemo4sun.multiply.com/journal/item/194/art_sunday_tour_with_honors_

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Nov 7, '09 The middle picture is enchanting. The effect of dappled light on the girl is lovely.

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Nov 7, '09 I didn't know you when you originally posted those blogs, so this was the first time I'd seen them. Very interesting. I particularly liked the examples of work by Frances MacDonald and Hannah Walton.

delete reply pestep55 wrote on Nov 7, '09 very beautiful, glad you re-posted.I hope Lina can see it somehow.

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Nov 7, '09 a perfect choice! ; D

delete reply gapeach7355 wrote on Nov 7, '09 Stunning...thank you for sharing again. Missing our "wicked witch..." :-)

delete reply msowens1 wrote on Nov 7, '09 beautiful art..... and beautiful Lina.... <--- how much she is missed!

Art, Bessie MacNicol

Art Sunday;Bessie Nicol,Glasgow artist

Jan 9, '09 7:52 PM for everyone

Above painting; self portrait,
Bessie MacNicol was the most important woman artist in Glasgow at the turn of the last century; she was the eldest of twin girls born on 15th July 1869. She studied art in both Glasgow and Paris. She first attended the Glasgow School of Art at the age of 18 in 1887, and in 1896 she managed to acquire her own studio at 175 St Vincent Street. She worked from here until 1899 when she married a gynaecologist turned painter. After the wedding she moved to Hillhead to live with her husband and worked from a studio at the back of her house. Her happiness was short lived.

A Girl of the sixties.
She died on the 4th June 1904 at the age of 34, she was pregnant with her first child. Her husband attended her death and signed the death certificate.
In the late 1890s MacNicol's favourite subjects were images of young girls posing under trees in dappled sunlight. The paintings were intended to capture the youth and beauty of her subjects against a background of nature and the seasons. They are very typical of the Glasgow style of painting and were every bit as good as the more popular and better known work of the male artists of the time.

 Autumn
Her husband survived her by only a couple of years. After a couple of years in mourning he married a young singer but died a few months after the marriage.

French Girl 1895
His second wife remarried in November of the same year and sold the family house along with all of Bessie’s belongings, personal effects and paintings, also the belongings, personal effects and paintings of her late husband. This is a major factor in the lack of documentary evidence of Bessie’s work and life.

Two sisters 1899
All that remains are a few letters and photographs; there are no sketchbooks and no diaries. Her early death was considered a great loss to Scottish art, but typically for a woman artist she was almost forgotten decades later.

Under the apple tree 1899

delete reply acousticeagle wrote on Jan 11, '09 What an amazing talent for a life cut so short. I am so impressed with this artist. The 'French Girl' is just incredible. And 'Autumn' ...it's all leaves! Amazing brushwork.

delete reply asolotraveler wrote on Jan 10, '09 lovely work

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jan 10, '09 I think I can get a large image of the Hornel painting, I'll send it along.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 10, '09, edited on Jan 10, '09 veryfrank said I hadn't heard of Bessie MacNicol before, but something about the style seemed familiar. hi Frank, Thanks for taking the time to stop by and look. there was a little of her biography that I left out, and this is probably why she seems familiar. I have shown the work of Hornel (Glasgow Artist) a couple of times before and she is known to have been influenced by him. There is a very nice portrait by her of him but the only picture I could find of this was very small which is why I didn't include it. I think she studied under him for a while, I can't quite remember the details, but even if she didn't her work is very much in his style, especially in her use of paint and colour. if you look in this album 'Dance of spring is by Hornel' http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/192/Art_Sunday_illustrations_for_Kelvingrove or if you look here you eill also see the similarities http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/93/Art_Sunday_magical_Edward_Atkinson_Hornel

delete reply starfishred wrote on Jan 10, '09 First what a nice presentation loretta.What a terrible sad story for this young family first to lose a mother in chilbirth and then such a wonderful artist and then the hubby finds someone else and then he dies wow. She was a fantastic painter so sad.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jan 10, '09 I hadn't heard of Bessie MacNicol before, but something about the style seemed familiar. I did some checking at some of the sites that I frequent and reproductions of her work are being offered as art posters on ALLPosters.com., among other sites. Apparently the work is public domain since the copyright was not renewed and it expired after "life, plus 70 years". toolserver.org is selling very nice copies with a great level of detail showing the wide brush strokes in the oils. I was particularly taken with the high resolution image of " Under The Apple Tree." As always, I am quite taken with the use of color.

Ary, The Glasgow Girls

Art Sunday; A style or School of Art

Glasgow Girls: Women in Art and Design, 1880-1920

Before start I have to say all of this is taken from a project I did a few years ago, I’ve just cut out most of the writing and tried to give the bare bones of it here. The pictures are not generally available on the internet, some may be but most are not, which is why the quality of the pictures is a little poor. They were originally scanned onto my computer a couple of years ago from illustrated art books. I used quite a few books at the time but if anyone is really interested in this work the book to get goes by the name ‘The Glasgow Girls; Women in Art and Design, 1880­-1920’  by Jude Burkhauser , hence my title for today. This is one of the best specialist art Books I’ve ever found and it is usually available quite cheap on Amazon.

The forgotten Artists ‘The Glasgow Girls’    

What is known as the ‘Glasgow Style’ is known mostly by the work of ‘The Glasgow Boys’. The female Artists of the time, and their work, is much less acknowledged. The painters Bessie MacNicol and Nora Neilson Grey are among the better known, possible because their work is easily identifiable with the work of the Glasgow Boys, their paintings share certain characteristics associated with ‘The Glasgow Style’. Charles Renée Mackintosh was central to the Glasgow movement and Margaret and Frances Macdonald are known as much for their inclusion in ‘The Four’, with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Herbert MacNair, as for their individual work. Margaret Macdonald’s contribution to the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was recognised by her contemporaries but became forgotten until the second half of the twentieth century. Researchers have asked the question ‘why, if these women were so visible in 1900 did they become virtually invisible by 1970?’. Some previously given answers have been; because the language of Art is gender specific, that is, ‘ the individual artistic creativity is spoken and written of as a male attribute’, another answer has been that the traditional textbooks used by those teaching Art History have not included women Artists’.  In mid to late nineteenth century there was a strict hierarchy within Art, the ‘Fine Arts’ of painting, sculpture and Architecture were dominated by men and the ‘lesser Arts’; watercolours, drawing, design and handicrafts were dominated by women. These things were considered ‘ladylike’ but not particularly artistic. Art Institutions and Schools were, as with all public bodies, run for men by men, with women playing little part. Craft and design were considered ‘less’ than fine Art and Art students were encouraged to progress from craft and toward fine Art.  Art Historians have largely ignored the contributions of these women artists but it was the women who contributed most to the development of  ‘Craft and Design’. They took what was traditionally associated with the women’s role; needlework, jewellery, fashion and costume design and turned  them into art forms in their own right. Needlework became known as ‘Artistic Needlework at the School of Art’.  Previously, these things had been considered ladylike but not particularly artistic.  The Glasgow Style gained international recognition due initially to the work of the ‘Glasgow Boys’, mostly painters, but it was the women who brought recognition to craft and design.  The work of the women has been largely forgotten but they were responsible for bringing women out of the private domain and into the public arena, at least as far as the Art World was concerned. Prior to this women Artists had no public platform, their work was confined to the home and undervalued when compared to the better known and accepted paintings of the mostly male painters.

'A Ponde by Francis MacDonald

                                    

The Glasgow Girls

There were several pairs of sisters included in ‘The Glasgow Girls’

There was Margaret and Frances Macdonald, (sisters). Margaret married Charles Rennie Macintosh and Frances married Herbert MacNair, they were collectively known as  'the four' The illustrations 2 and 3 are watercolours called 'the Spook School' by the MacDonald sisters.

 Agnes and Lucy Raeburn (sisters),

Illustration 4 & 5, lithographic poster by Agnes Raeburn,1897, Bookplate for Lucy Raeburn, 1893, by Frances Macdonald

 Poster by Agnes Raeburn

 Margaret and Mary Gilmore, (sisters)

Illustration 6 & 7, White metal paper knife by Margaret 1910, Brass dish by Mary 1901

Hanna and Helen Walton, (sisters)

Illustration 8 & 9, tea set by Helen Walton 1905, Ceramic tile by Hanna Walton

 Dorothy and Olive Carlton Smyth, (sisters)

Illustration 10 & 11, Costume by Dorothy 1900’s and Pytheas buys Amber, colour on vellum 1927

Other central figures include

Jessie Newbery

 (Wife of the head of The Glasgow School of Art Fra Newbury),

Illustration 12, collar and belt embroidered and appliquéd

 Agnes Bankie Harvey,

Illustration 13, Crescent Moon in Brass thought to be by Agnes

 Nora Neilson Grey,

Illustration 14,Little brother, oil on canvas 1920

Annie French,

Illustration 15, Watercolour The five princesses

 Jessie M King,

Illustration 16, 17 & 18 Silver and Enamel Pendent, 1910, illustration for Oscar Wild and Helen Paxton Brown, 1904, Chalk and watercolour.

 Ann Macbeth.

Illustration 19, Watercolou,r  Elspeth Currie age eight

De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar

Illustration 20, Silver Cup & Cover, 1912.

Female teachers at The Glasgow School of Art.

It was Jessie Newbury’s husband, Fra who encouraged women artists to become members of his staff. When Newbury took over in 1885 there were no female members of staff, then in 1892 he employed a ‘Miss Dunlop’ to teach ‘artistic needlework’. There is a reference in the ‘annual report’ that year to ‘artistic needlework taught by a lady.

Jessie Newbury and Ann Macbeth both taught artistic needlework and gained international reputations for their work.

Jessie M King became famous for her work as a book illustrator and jewellery designer and taught illustrating and ceramic decoration.

Ann Macbeth took over from Jessie Newbury and became head of embroidery in 1909.

Margaret and Frances Macdonald left the school in 1894 and set up their own studio in Glasgow.

Frances also taught embroidery and metalwork design between 1908-1910.

Agnes Bankie Harvey taught metal work, enamelling and goldsmithing.

De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar taught enamelling and other applied arts between 1900-1928.

Susan Crawford taught etching.

Helen Muir Wood taught enamelling and block cutting.

Nora Neilson Grey taught fashion plate drawing.

Annie French taught ceramic decoration.

Helen Paxton Brown, Margaret Swanson and Ann Arthur all taught in the school of embroidery and needlework.

Sisters Dorothy and Olive Carlton Smyth taught wood block printing, metalwork, gold and silver smithing, mosaics, lithography, miniature painting and the history of costume and armour.

I think these women produced some wonderful work and gave recognition and high profile to craft work which was previously looked down on by the art World. Somehow they have been forgoten by history which is a great shame.

delete reply ruraldiva wrote on Jul 20, '08 Literaly stumbled upon this and will be back for more.

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Jul 10, '08 Little brother is stunning.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jul 7, '08 What wonderful and amazing works of art. I am completely impressed. Thank you.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Jul 6, '08 wow what a wonderful tour thanks I will be back more to see all these wonderful links

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Jul 6, '08 Yes, a shame that they should be forgotten if the rest of their work is anything like you've posted here. I'm going to go have a look at the pictures now, but just wanted to thank you for giving us a lesson in Scottish art, especially about The Glasgow Girls.