Rebecca Thomson and Florence Jamieson in 2014 at Kircudbright.
A HUNDRED years since she was born, and just five years after her death, the talent of Ullapool artist Florence Jamieson is being fully recognised at a high level.
Glasgow Life Museums, which runs famous galleries such as Kelvingrove, has acquired a large selection of work to represent the range and skill of the significant artist.
Jamieson was born in Clouston Street, Glasgow on November 17, 1925. She moved to Ullapool in 2008 where she had 10 active years before moving to Daviot, near Inverness, where she died aged 94 in 2019.
Jamieson was one of the ‘Glasgow Girls’ — a number of notable women artists associated with the Glasgow School of Art in the first half of the 20th century.
Florence Jamieson in the Clouston St Pottery Studio, 1950s.
She built a lifelong career at a time when women artists were routinely overlooked and excluded from public collections and major exhibitions. She achieved membership in the Royal Society of Painters in watercolour and the Society of Scottish Artists and, with her husband Robert Sinclair Thomson, founded Scotland’s first commercial artisan pottery to open after WWII. She was one of only four remaining living artists to be included in the prestigious Glasgow Girls exhibition at Kirkcudbright Galleries in 2014.
Jamieson was also very active in the Ullapool art scene and had large solo exhibitions at highly regarded Rhue Art Gallery and The Ceilidh Place and as well as participating in community gallery, An Talla Solais.
The acquisition recognises Jamieson’s important contribution to Scottish art and is enabled by the Glasgow Museums Acquisitions Fund, The National Fund for Acquisitions and by contributions from her daughter Rebecca Thomson.
Starry Night Cat by Florence Jamieson – Stoneware Platter glazed with Slip Trail Design, 1950s.Figure of a Woman and Children by Florence Jamieson. Stoneware decorated with slip trailed glaze design, 1950s.
“This acquisition is a resounding endorsement of the quality of my mother’s work and puts her firmly where she belongs,” said her daughter, Rebecca Thomson, who also lives in Ullapool. “She was well-known and loved locally.
“My mother was an original thinker — strong and independent. She knew her talent was something special. But she worked at a time, and in a world, that did not give women artists the status they deserved. I’m proud to see that imbalance being addressed, though I’m sad that she did not live to see it.”
Rebecca continued: “This isn’t just about celebrating Florence Jamieson, it’s about acknowledging the many women artists of her generation whose talent was not fully recognised, and about ensuring that future generations will see their work in the collections where it belongs.”
On the centenary of her mother’s birth, Rebecca will be opening her house at 5 Morefield Place in Ullapool to show Florence’s work for sale, on November 15 to 17, from 11am to 4pm.
The full selection of her work can also be viewed on: https://florencejamieson.com/kelvingrove-acquisitions/
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