Article at Royal Scottish Academy news page
We are delighted to announce Robbie Bushe RSA and Elaine Woo MacGregor as the recipients of two new awards funded by the RSA Blackadder Houston Bequest.
The £20,000 RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Painting Award intends to enable a committed painter to devote themselves exclusively to painting for a period up to 26 weeks. The inaugural recipient, Edinburgh-based artist Robbie Bushe’s practice centres on the depiction of detailed, suggestive narratives, frequently set within expansive architectonic constructions.
He intends to use the funds to embark on a speculative visual journey around the abandoned plans for an inner ring road in Edinburgh. Through archival research and improvisation, Bushe’s complex, large-scale panoramic paintings will playfully re-enact what the plans may have been.
Bushe said: ‘I am thrilled. Since graduating in 1990, I have covertly woven my art practice around intensive academic commitments. This opportunity to make work uninterrupted for an extended period is an absolute dream come true. John Houston was my studio lecturer in my fourth year at Edinburgh College of Art, which was also John’s last year of teaching. His quiet and paternal approach brought out the best in me, and his voice and advice have stayed with me over the last 30 or more years.’