Joyce W. Cairns PPRSA RSW

Joyce W. Cairns (PPRSA DEd(hc) HRHA HRWA HRBA RSW), is one of Scotland's most well-known artists. Her work is "mainly autobiographical and is based on past memories intertwined with present experiences, woven around the backcloth of the once fishing village of Footdee at the mouth of Aberdeen harbour where she lived for 33 years" (artist's statement).

Born and brought up in Edinburgh, she studied painting at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen from 1966 -71 and The Royal College of Art, London 1971-74. She then completed a fellowship at Gloucester College of Art and Design, before studying at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Cairns has won a large number of prizes and awards, including the Hospitalfield Prize, 1969; RSA Student Prize, 1970; Carnegie Travelling Scholarship (to America), 1971, and the English Speaking Union Scholarship there in 1972; the RSA’s Latimer Award in 1978 and the first prize in its Morrison Portrait Competition in 1989. She was elected RSW in 1979 and RSA in 1998.

In 1976 she moved back to Aberdeen where she taught Drawing and Painting at Gray’s School of Art until 2004. She also taught at both Glasgow School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. She then left teaching in order to complete a large body of work which finished with the exhibition 'War Tourist' at Aberdeen Art Gallery in 2006. This exhibition was based on her father’s war experience, backed up by extensive research following in his footsteps through Europe and Tunisia.

Cairns was President of the Royal Scottish Academy from 2018 to 2022 and was the first female President of the RSA. She has exhibited throughout her career with Compass Gallery and Gerber Fine Art in Glasgow and had had many solo exhibitions throughout the UK and further afield. Her work can be found in public collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery; The Scottish Arts Council; BBC Television; City Arts Centre, Edinburgh; Fife Regional Council; The Fleming Collection; Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Grampian Television; Graves Art Gallery & Museum, Sheffield; Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen; Lanarkshire County Council; Manchester City Art Gallery; McMaster Museum, Hamilton, Ontario; Perth City Art Gallery & Museum; Shell UK; Tidaholm Government Office, Sweden; The Contemporary Arts Society; The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; University of Aberdeen; University of Strathclyde; Unilever; Aberdeen Asset Management; The National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh; The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen; The British Museum, London; The Victor Murphy Trust; The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; The Maritime Museum, Irvine; New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge and private collections world wide.