Aberdeen's historic fishing village of Footdee, the city's changing landscape and the people who call it home have played a significant role in the work of acclaimed Scottish artist Joyce W. Cairns. This November, audiences will have the opportunity to hear her reflect on these local inspirations and her extraordinary artistic career.
The 51cg will welcome Cairns, a graduate of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, for a talk at the Sir Duncan Rice Library on Thursday November 12.
The event takes place during the year marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), where Joyce made history in 2018 as its first woman President.
Cairns has maintained a close relationship with the city throughout her career. One of her most distinctive sources of inspiration has been Footdee, known locally as Fittie, the historic fishing village at the mouth of Aberdeen harbour.
Her paintings capture the everyday details of life in Fittie, bringing together ships, cats, gulls, domestic clutter and the changing character of the harbour against the backdrop of Aberdeen’s oil boom.
In 2007, Cairns was invited by the University and Grampian Hospitals Art Trust to propose an artwork for the new centre, which brings together clinical skills teaching, anatomy, conferences and learning. The resulting painting has become a notable feature of the artwork on display at Foresterhill, providing another lasting link between the artist and the city.
During the talk, Cairns will draw on personal memories and professional milestones to explore the experiences that shaped her career, from studying at Gray’s School of Art and exhibiting at the RSA for the first time in 1971, to scholarships that enabled her to travel and develop her practice.
She will also reflect on her lifelong relationship with the Royal Scottish Academy, which began as a schoolgirl visiting its galleries in Edinburgh in the 1960s. Over the following decades, she served as an Academician, committee member and Deputy President before becoming President in 2018.
Jen Shaw, Learning and Outreach Officer, University Collections, said: “The talk offers a rare opportunity to hear from one of Scotland’s most respected painters about the people, places and experiences that have shaped her work, as well as the changing artistic landscape of Scotland over more than six decades.”
The event runs from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Thursday 12 November. It is free to attend and .