The Scottish Gallery is proud to be hosting a new exhibition of work by Kate Downie. Estuary features work based on 3 months of travel through Australia and Japan in late 2014.

Featuring bright new ink & watercolour paintings from ‘Outback river source to the coast’ as well as pictorial diaries and oil paintings, this new body of work marks a serious development in the artist’s deep encounters with both the built and the natural river lands around the edges of the Pacific Rim.

Kate writes:
‘Estuaries are where the land and the sea meet, and all life seems to want to join in. Cities spring up around their shores, and yet those tidal shores remain relatively untamed because humans can never control the pull and release of the moon’s gravity upon the seas.’

Born in North Carolina, Kate Downie studied at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen before travel and residencies took her to the United States, England, Amsterdam and Paris. Over the past two decades Downie has established herself as one of Scotland’s most prominent artists. Her skill not restricted to painting alone, she works across a diverse range of artistic medium. The majority of her work is defined by geography, and the artist’s response to the landscape or subject in front of her.

Guy Peploe (Managing Driector) writes:
‘Downie is one of the most subtle and persuasive colourists of her generation and she will only add to her palette from real experience. This gives her work a truth and authority, a right to transport us to the unfamiliar or provide an urgent reminder of where we have also been.’

Public collections including Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art; Kelvingrove, Art Gallery: Reitveld Kunst Academie, Amsterdam; the BBC and Edinburgh Council.

Catalogue Available on Request.