ARTISTS A-Z

Biography:

Penny Beaton studied at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) graduating in 1917 and, after teaching at Hamilton Academy, joined the staff of ECA in 1919. She later became Head of the Junior Department (equivalent to the modern Foundation course). Her colleagues on the staff included Adam Bruce Thomson and Donald Moodie whose adventurous use of colour made a great impression on the young artist. During the 1930s her watercolour style was influenced by William Gillies’ Expressionist approach, but during the 1940s she moved towards a more constructed manner.

Her later watercolours make use of a pen-and-ink framework, coloured with rich and sonorous tones. Her subjects include landscapes, harbour scenes and flowers and like Scottish Colourist SJ Peploe, worked in both Dumfries & Galloway and Iona. She died in Edinburgh aged 77.