This print was created in conjunction with the Glasgow Print Studio 50th Anniversary Here & Now Legacy Project. "I have always loved the city space around Glasgow Cross with its layers of urban history, diverse architecture, its web of transport infrastructure and most importantly its human activity. I have probably had in mind to draw it for the past 30 years, and the GPS 50th anniversary print gave me the perfect excuse to finally focus on this extraordinary locality, just 5 minutes’ walk from the Print Studio, to produce this etching based on a detailed ink drawing."

"While I was drawing there for the first time, two ten-year-old girls following behind their Mums (who were deep in conversation) crossed my line of vision, deciding that Glasgow Cross was the perfect place to practice cartwheels. Such exuberant insouciance says it all about Glasgow, and I include this happy moment in the carved seal prints and in the title."

Kate Downie RSA was born in 1958 and is an American-born Scottish landscape artist. She studied drawing, painting and printmaking at Gray’s School of Art between 1975 and 1980. Her work has been exhibited extensively in the UK as well as in China, Australia, Norway, Holland, France, and the USA. She has received numerous awards and residency placements over her career, and is represented in public and private collections worldwide. The artist studied ink painting and contemporary culture in China between 2009-2015 over many visits and residencies, resulting in the solo touring exhibitions in Scotland: ‘Shared Vision’ and ‘Walk through resonant Landscape’. Giant monoprints and a suite of Great Wall etchings that were printed at Glasgow Print Studio reflect the result of this prolonged relationship.

Kate has been working with GPS for over 15 years, both teaching and print-making, having been especially busy this year with the co-publication of ‘Three Bridge Evening’ which was launched with a small retrospective ‘Printing Bridges 1999-2022’ in the downstairs gallery.

“My work attempts to transform ordinary places into poetic acts of memory”