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framed dimensions: 129 x 99 cm
signed lower right
Pat Douthwaite was fascinated by the female figure, often exploring its expressive and symbolic potential through bold, unsettling imagery. In Woman in a Red Gown, a semi-clothed female figure stands against a stark white background, her body wrapped in a vivid costume of orange and red. Her bared teeth and stylised black hair, evoking the likeness of an Egyptian queen, lend the figure a confrontational presence. Yet she stands in tiny shoes which suggest a vulnerability despite best efforts to appear fierce. A reptilian creature enters the scene from the left, gazing up at the woman, adding a surreal, totemic dimension. Douthwaite’s distinctive signature appears lower right, not merely as a mark of authorship but as a statement of defiance; a declaration of the artist’s uncompromising vision.
Pat Douthwaite was born in Glasgow in 1934. She studied mime and modern dance with Margaret Morris, whose husband, J. D. Fergusson, encouraged her to paint. This important influence apart, she was self-taught. In 1958 Pat lived in Suffolk with a group of painters, including the Scots Colquhoun and MacBryde, and William Crozier. From 1959-1988 she travelled widely, to N. Africa, India, Peru, Venezuela, Europe, U.S.A., Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Ecuador and from 1969 lived part of the time in Majorca, and more recently in various properties across the Scottish Borders. She died in July 2002 in Broughty Ferry.
Douthwaite seems to find it necessary, like a method actress, to inhabit the idea, to get inside the skin of the role, as it were. Her paintings, often grotesque for all their elegance, can range in mood from tragicomic frenzy to angst-ridden melancholy, but they usually have a certain exciting theatricality in common. Cordelia Oliver, 1981
Gallery Director Guy Peploe knew the artist well and is the recognised expert on her work. He published a monograph on the artist in 2016.
The Scottish Gallery exhibitions: 1977, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000 (Retrospective), 2005 (Memorial), 2011 (Retrospective – Paintings & Works on Paper), 2014, 2016, 2020 (London), 2021
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