Barbara Rae CBE RA

Known for their use of bright and contrasting colour, Rae's dazzling prints combine the influence of landscape and travel with painterly abstraction.  Stunning silkscreen prints by the celebrated Scottish painter and printmaker.

"I enjoy the excitement of working with different master printers and learn so much from their varied ways of producing such amazing and magical results from a piece of etched metal or from a silk screen. Unlike the solitary act of painting in the studio, printmaking can be gregarious and the printmakers on the whole are very generous in sharing their ideas, personal techniques and secrets.For all of that and what it has meant to the development of my work, I thank them." - Barbara Rae

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Barbara Rae studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965.  She was awarded a travel scholarship, enabling her to work in France and Spain in 1966. She went on to have a teaching career in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Her work combines the influence of landscape and travel with painterly abstraction. Although she does not like the term landscape painter, the importance of place is very apparent in her works; in particular the human traces and patterns of history that are left on a landscape.  Spain is Rae's favourite destination, providing her with endless inspiration as we can see in her latest work.

Her printmaking has been integral to her artistic activity since her student days. The way she conceives and works on her monoprints, screenprints and etchings complements and informs her approach to painting. The discipline imposed by these media and the unique opportunities offered by them create a set of possibilities, which stimulate her vision of the world, whether she is drawing, painting, making prints, or simply observing.

Among her many awards are Major Scottish Arts Council Awards (1975, 1981), Guthrie Medal, Royal Scottish Academy (1977), Royal Scottish Academy Sir William Gillies Travel Award (1983) Calouste Gulbenkian Printmaking Award (1983) and Hunting Group Prizewinner (1990).

Rae was elected President of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1983. She was made a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1992 (ARSA 1980) and a Royal Academician in 1996. She has been a Member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland since 1995 and was a Member of the Board of the British School at Rome in 1998. In 1999 she was awarded a CBE and received an Honorary Doctorate from Napier University, Edinburgh. Rae lives and works in Edinburgh.