Still Life

In an interview in 2006, Spottiswood claimed that she tries to represent memory and imaginative realities through her paintings, rather than concrete scenes. Throughout her works, she invites an audience to overlook the subject matter and see a representation of a memory - the key features of an impression, and the emotions it cultivates. This framework helps to contextualise the dream-like quality of the work - its muted colour palette, two-dimensional perspective, and its emphasis on symmetry. Behind the fruit bowls are two shades of grey intended to indicate a difference between background and foreground, that additionally connote an untarnished and liminal setting for the work that recalls Spottiswood’s focus on imagined realities. The symmetry and liminality convey a sense of order in space and intense tranquility in an almost dreamlike manner.

Elspeth Spottiswood
Born in Aberdeenshire in 1926, Elspeth Spottiswood was a solitary child who often spent her time honing her drawing and painting skills. After the Second World War, she took up formal artistic training at the renowned Camberwell School of Art, but became disgruntled at the inflexible curriculum that they offered. She became acquainted with Expressionist artist Oscar Kokoscha, who encouraged Spottiswood in her early career.

Spottiswood married Michael Milburn in 1949 and the couple relocated to Bocaddon in Cornwall, raising four sons and a daughter. During this time, Spottiswood became associated with the St Ives School of art, the acclaimed modernist movement that operated out of West Cornwall. She also befriended fellow Cornwall-based artists Lionel Miskin and Patrick Hayman. Spottiswood primarily painted Cornish landscapes, and exhibited many times in Falmouth, St Ives, Devon, Penzance and Liskeard. She also exhibited at the Woodstock Gallery in London and Colchester Art Centre.

In her later life, Spottiswood translated works by Italian author Dacia Mariani, alongside the horticulturist Dick Kitto. She passed away in 2016.