Breakfast Table (From The Finnish Suite)

Artist Frances Walker (Kirkcaldy, Scotland, born 1930)

Date1979-1980

Mediumlithograph on duck egg green Barcham Green paper

ClassificationsPrints

DimensionsPlate Size: Height: 43.5 cm, Width: 55.5 cm
Frame: Height: 58.4 cm, Width: 79.2 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1981.

LocationOn Loan

Object numberABDAG007323

Keywords

About MeFrances Walker RSA RSW DLitt is one of Scotland's most highly regarded artists. Born in Kirkcaldy in 1930, she studied at Edinburgh College of Art then with travelling scholarships from Edinburgh College of Art and Royal Scottish Academy visited and painted in various European countries. After completing her teacher training course, she sought out and took up a post as visiting teacher of art for all schools in Harris and North Uist, Western Isles. This experience confirmed her life long affinity with more remote places - Although for Frances Walker 'remote' is a matter of perception. Her work has frequently been concerned with the meeting place of sea and land, the coastal reaches of rock, sand and deserted beaches; that great world-wide frontier of endless interaction of the elements.

Moving to Aberdeen when appointed as a lecturer in drawing and painting at Gray's school of art in 1958, Frances Walker took early retirement in 1985 in order to devote more time to her painting and printmaking. She divided that time between her home and studio in Aberdeen and the island of Tiree, where one of the few remaining thatched houses is her alternative home. She has also travelled further afield - finding inspiration and source material for her work often from the wildest and most desolate landscape - of Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard and most recently Antarctica.

Walker produced a series of prints after a visit to Finland in 1973. This lithograph is of a simple Finnish interior. The casual arrangement of objects on the breakfast table gives the composition a feeling of intimacy and informality.

The technique of lithography allows the artist to draw directly on to a flat stone and when the print is taken, it perfectly reproduces the appearance of the crayon drawing.