Sam Ainsley
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Sam Ainsley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 (age 75–76) North Shields, England, |
| Education | |
| Known for | Painting, Printmaking, Teaching |
| Elected | RSA, DLitt (Honorary), Saltire Society Outstanding Women of Scotland |
| Website | www |
Sam Ainsley (born Samantha Ainsley, 1950) is a British artist and teacher, living and working in Glasgow, who was the founder and former head of the Master of Fine Art (MFA) programme at the Glasgow School of Art.
Ainsley was born in North Shields, then Northumberland and now in North Tyneside.[1] In 1973 she completed the one-year foundation course at the Jacob Kramer College in Leeds and until 1977 she studied painting at Newcastle Polytechnic. In 1975 she spent six weeks in Japan studying Sukiya architecture which led to her using a very limited palette of colours but with an emphasis on texture and materials.[2] After graduating from Newcastle, Ainsley spent a year in postgraduate study at Edinburgh College of Art. When she completed her post-graduate diploma there in 1978, an Andrew Grant fellowship award allowed to her to teach part-time in the same department for a year.[1]
Early career
Following a visit to New York City in 1979, Ainsley began using unstretched, shaped canvases and her work developed from monochrome canvases into abstract shapes using the full colour spectrum.[2] Her Postgraduate work was heavily influenced by her time in Japan and her interest in Japanese culture.[3] In 1982 Ainsley created a series of banners for the inauguration of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art's new building in Edinburgh.[4] A commission for a thirty-foot tapestry woven at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh for the headquarters building of the General Accident insurance company in Perth was completed in 1983.[4] Her 1985 Banner for Greenham represented Ainsley's political concerns and featured images of the circle of women protesting at Greenham Common.[2] A solo show of Ainsley's work was held at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow in 1987, included a semi-autobiographical installation entitled 'Why I Choose Red', and was her first major one person exhibition in Scotland.[5] In 2004 she was also included in the permanent collection of women artists in the New Hall, Cambridge collection.[4]
