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framed dimensions: 42.5 x 91 cm
signed lower right; titled and numbered in pencil to margin edition 5 of 10
PROVENANCE:
Edition held in the collection of National Galleries of Scotland
In Approaching Squall over Fraserburgh, Frances Walker conjures a brooding, elemental vision of the northeast Scottish coast, captured in her hallmark medium of etching. The work is both monochromatic and restrained, with one bold gesture of colour, the sea rendered in a deep, expressive blue, punctuating the otherwise tonal drama of the landscape. The elongated format heightens the sweep of space and sky, as a looming squall presses in from above, shifting light and wind in its wake. Fraserburgh lies in its path, exposed, coastal, and enduring. Technically, Walker’s mastery of etching allows her to layer texture, line, and tone with extraordinary sensitivity. In this etching, delicate hatching builds the clouds’ weight, while the etched lines of the shore hold a quiet, tensile energy.
Walker is one of Scotland’s most revered and respected artists, known for her lifelong commitment and personal engagement with remote and rugged landscapes. Born
in Kirkcaldy in 1930, she studied at Edinburgh College
of Art and later taught for many years at Gray’s School
of Art in Aberdeen. Her long-standing connection to the Outer Hebrides, the Western Isles, and the Moray and Aberdeenshire coasts is evident in her deeply felt prints, which reflect both topography and time, landscapes shaped by weather, light, and silence.
The Scottish Gallery exhibitions: 2010
Born in Kirkcaldy in 1930, Frances Walker studied at Edinburgh College of Art and then took up a post as visiting teacher of art for the Hebrides. This experience engendered in her a life-long love of wild and desolate places and since then she has chosen to depict the most remote landscapes, her compositions usually based on coastal reaches, craggy rocks and deserted beaches.
Moving to Aberdeen, Walker took up a post at Gray’s School of Art, where she taught for many years. Since retirement, she has divided her time between Aberdeen and the Western Isles, especially Tiree, where she owns a thatched cottage, but more recently has also travelled further afield – her latest inspiration being the even wilder and more desolate landscape of the Antarctic and South Georgia. A suite of Antarctic paintings were recently bequeathed and exhibited as part of a major exhibition, Among the Polar Ice at The McManus in Dundee (September 2019 – March 2020).
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