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.

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.