Photograph © Kenneth Gray
Victoria Crowe
Victoria Crowe studied at Kingston School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, before being invited to join Edinburgh College of Art in 1968, where she taught drawing and painting until 1998.
Over the last 35 years Victoria Crowe, one of Scotland’s leading painters, has established herself as a painter whose work is instantly recognisable. While the full range of her painting covers landscape, still lifes, portraits, self-portraits and interiors, much of her work defies such precise categorisation.
She has been described as ‘one of the most vital and original figurative painters currently at work in Scotland’.
Her work is represented in a large number of public and private collections. She lives and works in the Scottish Borders and Venice.
upcoming exhibitions
Decades
The Scottish Gallery, dundas street, edinburgh
31 July 2025 – 30 August 2025
The Scottish Gallery marks Victoria Crowe’s 80th year with Decades. At its heart is a powerful new body of work, supported by selected earlier works from the 1960s to the 2010s, offering a richly layered view of Crowe’s evolving practice.
Spanning six decades, Decades offers both a reflective and forward-looking perspective on an artist whose vision remains unwavering yet responsive to the world’s shifting tides. Rooted in themes of continuity, memory, and transformation, the exhibition reveals the enduring resonance of Crowe’s connection to place. Crowe’s landscapes are far more than depictions of terrain; they are poetic spaces imbued with metaphor and meaning. From her early years at Kittleyknowe with the solitary shepherd Jenny Armstrong, to the luminous canals of Venice and the elemental light of Orkney, Crowe’s paintings speak of ephemerality, stillness, and an intimate awareness of time’s passage.
Decades at The Scottish Gallery
Shifting Surfaces
Dovecot Studios, infirmary street, edinburgh
28 July – 11 October 2025
In partnership with The Scottish Gallery, Shifting Surfaces marks a remarkable milestone in the career of one of Scotland's most distinguished contemporary artists. Immerse yourself in the inspirations and collaborations between Victoria Crowe and Dovecot Studios this summer. From Large Tree Group (2007) to the recent tufted rugs of the Orcadian Series (2023), journey through a rich relationship of texture and textiles while overlooking Dovecot’s world-renowned studio, where these textile masterpieces were created. Shifting Surfaces explores the connecting threads between her paintings and woven interpretations, highlighting her work with light, landscape, and memory.
previous exhibitions
ice moon fire land
Victoria Crowe’s exhibition, Ice Moon Fire Land, was shown at Flowers Gallery, London, in September 2024. The exhibition ran concurrently with the artist’s solo show at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney. Influenced by the artist’s residency in Orkney, the works take inspiration from nature and its transformations during the white nights of the summer solstice and the dark splendour of midwinter. Exploring the ephemerality and fragility of the natural world through evocative depictions of the changing seasons and landscapes in the Scottish Borders where Crowe lives, the paintings invite the viewer to reconsider their perspective and relationship with the environment.
RSA residency in Orkney
Elemental, the exhibition of Victoria’s RSA Residency in Orkney, was on display at the RSA on the Mound in Edinburgh from 24 June – 23 July 2023.
In Orkney, Victoria Crowe RSA split her time at Pier Arts Centre between the two most extreme periods of the celestial cycle. Her intention was to “explore the light on the land and its margins during the long twilights of the Orkney summer solstice, then return to experience the short days, long darkness and luminous skies of winter”.
Considering Art podcast
Victoria discusses her life and work with Bob Chaundry on his Considering Art podcast. She talks about how her paintings reflect both her external and inner life, how she was attracted to the landscape of the Pentland Hills in Scotland that she made her home, the influence of Russian icons, how she responded artistically to the death of her son, the inspiration of Venice, her portrait work and her collaborations with poets, musicians and tapestry weavers.
Representation
Victoria Crowe is represented by The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh and Flowers Gallery, London.