Margot Sandeman
{{Short description|Scottish painter (1922–2009)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox artist
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| name = Margot Sandeman
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| birth_name = Margot Sandeman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|05|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|01|17|1922|05|27|df=yes}}
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| nationality =
| education = Glasgow School of Art
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| known_for = Painting of West Coast Scottish landscapes
| notable_works = Sheep Resting on the Shore
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| spouse = James Robson
| awards = Guthrie Award, 1958
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Margot Sandeman (27 May 1922 – 17 January 2009) was a Scottish painter, close friend of Joan Eardley and long-time collaborator with poet Ian Hamilton Finlay. She was known for her paintings of West Coast Scottish landscapes, rural settings, interiors and still lives.
Early life
File:La façade ouest de la "Glasgow School of Art" (3803688596).jpg
Margot Sandeman was born in Glasgow to a family of Scottish artists, the daughter of self-taught watercolourist Archibald Sandeman (1887–1941), and internationally known embroiderer Muriel Boyd (1887–1981).{{Cite web |date=4 April 2009 |title=Margot Sandeman: Scottish painter |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/glasgow/margot-sandeman-scottish-painter-ss298p2xwv3 |access-date=2016-03-12 |website=The Times |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12386476.Margot_Sandeman/|title=Margot Sandeman|website=Herald Scotland|date=11 April 2009 |access-date=2016-03-12}} Sandeman grew up in Bearsden in a creative household, influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The family home was decorated by her mother with texts such as "Bread feeds the body but flowers the soul".
Studies
Sandeman studied at the Glasgow School of Art, where her contemporaries included Joan Eardley and the poet Ian Hamilton Finlay. Sandeman was already a confident painter when she began art school and, like Eardley, one of a small group selected for special training by the head of drawing and painting, Hugh Adam Crawford. Both artists flourished under his experimental fast-track treatment. Crawford commented on "the inner structure [of Sandeman's paintings], which is not an optical thing."
Relationship with Joan Eardley
Sandeman and Eardley met for the first time at Glasgow School of Art and became close friends.{{Cite web|url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/art/brush-with-greatness-1-698101|title=Brush with greatness|website=www.scotsman.com|access-date=2016-03-12}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.stir.ac.uk/artcol/artist-list/sandemanmargot/|title=Sandeman Margot – University of Stirling|website=www.stir.ac.uk|access-date=2016-03-12}}
"We were very shy of each other for about a year," Sandeman remembers. "But Joan's mother and my mother enticed us to do a Red Cross course together. We started having to bandage each other, that broke the ice! After that we became tremendously great friends."
Both lived in Bearsden and, although their styles were very different, they encouraged and supported each other,{{Cite book|title=Joan Eardley|last=Andreae|first=Christopher|publisher=Lund Humphries|year=2013|isbn=9781848221147|pages=47–48}} drew and painted together, and shared camping trips and family holidays. In 1941, as students, Sandeman and Eardley acquired a horse and caravan and travelled, sketched and painted around Loch Lomond. For many years, the two women regularly visited High Corrie on the Isle of Arran, renting an outhouse, "The Tabarnacle", as a studio.
In a review of a 1940s Society of Scottish Artists exhibition, a Scotsman art critic said,
"Miss Joan Eardley and Miss Margot Sandeman more than maintain the exciting promise of their first appearances […] Both are quite fearless and convinced exponents of highly individual outlooks."
Work
File:Bletchley Park - Draco2008.jpg
Sandeman graduated from Glasgow School of Art during World War II and in 1942 was sent to Bletchley Park, where she worked for six months as a code-breaker.
After leaving Bletchley to care for her mother, Sandeman took a studio in Glasgow. Her first work there was a series of vivid still-lives while, for paid employment, she painted antique effects on lampshades.
In 1946 she married the teacher, potter and ceramic artist James Robson, with whom she had two sons.
Prolific and wide-ranging, Sandeman worked in the open air, in the studio, and from memory, creating unique interpretations of West Coast Scottish landscapes, rural settings, interiors and still lives. She collaborated regularly with poet Ian Hamilton Finlay.
In later life Sandeman's range and output continued to increase, including a notable suite of paintings in celebration of Scottish dramatist and poet Robert McLellan, a neighbour in High Corrie.
Exhibitions and awards
Sandeman exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy from 1946-1972,{{Cite web|url=http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib1_1267527323|title=Margot Sandeman - Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951|website=sculpture.gla.ac.uk|access-date=2016-03-12}} Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Compass Gallery, the Hughson Gallery, Glasgow, the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, and the Lillie Art Gallery, Glasgow.
Her principal solo exhibitions were at the Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh from 1974 onwards.{{cite book|author=David Buckman|publisher=Art Dictionaries Ltd|year=1998|title=Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z |isbn=0-95326-095-X}}
In 1964 Sandeman won the Guthrie Award of the Royal Scottish Academy and in 1970, the Redpath Award from the Society of Scottish Artists.{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}} She also received a Scottish Arts Council award in 1970. In 1989 she was Scottish winner in the Laing Competition.
Collections
Sandeman's work is included in the permanent collection of the National Galleries of Scotland,{{cite web |title=Margot Sandeman, Scottish |url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/margot-sandeman |website=National Galleries of Scotland |access-date=30 May 2023}} University of Stirling,{{cite web |title=Margot Sandeman (1922–2009) |url=https://collections.stir.ac.uk/people/sandeman-margot/ |website=University of Sterling |access-date=30 May 2023}} the Glasgow Life Museums,{{cite web |title=No More Sheep III, Margot Sandeman (1922–2009) |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/sandeman-margot-19222009 |website=ArtUK |access-date=30 May 2023}} the Fleming Collection,{{cite web |title=Margot Sandeman: A New Fleming Collection Acquisition |url=https://www.flemingcollection.com/scottish_art_news/news-press/margot-sandeman-a-new-fleming-collection-acquisition |access-date=30 May 2023}} among others.{{cite news |last1=Casely |first1=Gordon |title=Margot Sandeman |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12386476.margot-sandeman/ |access-date=30 May 2023 |publisher=The Herald (Scotland) |date=10 April 2009}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Art UK bio}}
- [http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13894375.Modern_Scottish_Women__uncovering_a_vital_period_in_art_history/?ref=ar Modern Scottish Women - uncovering a vital period in art history]
- [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive/tga-20012-2/hamilton-finlay-sandeman-barges-postcard-design "Barges" by Ian Hamilton Finlay, illustrated by Margot Sandeman]
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Category:20th-century Scottish women artists
Category:21st-century Scottish women artists
Category:Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art
Category:Painters from Glasgow
Category:Bletchley Park people
Category:British landscape painters