Anne Redpath

‘I am someone who is very interested in colour – and by that I mean bright colour, gay colour; but at the same time if you are a colourist you like quiet colour as well’

Anne Redpath OBE ARA (1895 – 1965) is one of the most celebrated Scottish artists of the 20th century, and was heavily influenced by her Borders upbringing. Born in Galashiels, she was the daughter of a tweed designer; as a young girl, she was apparently mesmerised by the flecks of different colour her father wove into his fabrics. After studying at Edinburgh College of Art, she then travelled widely in Europe, settling in the south of France.

As her art career began taking shape, she returned to the Borders in the 1930s, spending time in Hawick and exhibiting regularly in Edinburgh galleries before becoming the first female painter to be elected an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, in 1952. She remains best known for her still-life works, which play with colour, texture and form to beautiful effect.