Kate Downie, Bronwen Sleigh, Fiona Watson
1 - 30 May 2026
Overview
Kate Downie The Art of Crossing, 2014 etching 56 x 99 cm 22 1/8 x 39 in edition of 50
Kate Downie
The Art of Crossing, 2014
etching
56 x 99 cm
22 1/8 x 39 in
edition of 50
May presents work by three long-term studio members in the ground floor gallery - Kate Downie, Bronwen Sleigh and Fiona Watson. Across varying approaches, subject matter and technique, these artists' distinctive works embody sustained excellence in both printmaking process and image-making.
 
Kate Downie was born in America of British parentage, but returned to live in the North East of Scotland at the age of 7. She studied Fine Art at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, graduating in 1980.
 
She has taken part in artists' residencies in the USA, Amsterdam, Paris, Corsica, Norway and China. During her career, Downie has established studios in places as diverse as a brewery, a maternity hospital, an oil rig and an island underneath the Forth Rail Bridge. Her ongoing relationship with the Forth Bridges was made manifest in 2014 when she was selected as official artist in residence for the Forth Road Bridge during its 50th Anniversary.
 
Like the Scottish Artists Joan Eardley and DY Cameron in the last century, Downie has spent the past 25 years exploring an artistic vision for both the extremes of a Scottish urban/industrial landscape and Scotland's coastal 'edge-scapes'. During lockdown she explored a more conceptual approach to the secret world of plants & trees over time, and how they impact on our lives.
 
Bronwen Sleigh was born in Wales in 1980. She received a BA in Illustration from Glasgow School of Art in 2002, and MA in Fine Art Printmaking from The Royal College of Art, London in 2008. She takes inspiration from industrial architecture, unused and forgotten urban spaces, and environments at the edge of the city. Her work provokes an extended and considered dialogue with these spaces, which she transforms through the processes of her practice. Sleigh's work explores space rather than describing it, challenging perceptions of the ordinary by presenting it in an unfamiliar way.
 
Sleigh has exhibited widely both in the UK and overseas, as well as attending several artists residencies including at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada and at Cove Park, Scotland.  Her work is held in numerous collections around the world. 
 
Fiona Watson was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, and moved to London as a child. She trained as a biologist and worked as a medical journalist until 1996. Studying Biological Sciences at Leicester University taught her to focus and explore possibilities, and gave her a view into an unseen world. Observation, interpretation and creativity are fundamental in both the sciences and art, and Fiona successfully harnesses these skills to create artworks which are both beautiful and meticulous.
 
Her work is characterised by a whimsical, yet sometimes cynical, playfulness. She is interested in Eastern mysticism and symbolism and is fascinated by the patterns, rhythms, forms and colours of nature in a microscopic and macroscopic sense.
 
Fiona has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. She has work in public and private collections around the world including Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, New Hall College Women's Art Collection, Cambridge, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stirling University and International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 
Works
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