Mary Nicol Neill Armour

Mary Nicol Neill Armour LLD (27 March 1902 – 5 July 2000) was a Scottish landscape and still life painter and a former Honorary President of the Glasgow School of Art and of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.[1]

Biography

Glasgow School of Art

Born Mary Nicol Steel on the 27 March 1902 [2] at Blantyre, near Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Mary Steel won a scholarship to attend Hamilton Academy between 1914 and 1920.[1] At the Academy she attracted the attention of an art teacher, Penelope Beaton (1886–1963, who was later to become Head of the Junior Department, Edinburgh School of Art)[3] and who persuaded Mary’s father to allow his daughter to enrol at the Glasgow School of Art. Steel studied at the GSA from 1920 until 1925, when after a post-diploma year and teacher training, Mary Steel became an art teacher.[4]

In 1927 she married the landscape and figure painter William Armour (1903–1979), settling in Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow city.[1]

Mary Armour was to exhibit regularly at the Royal Academy; the Royal Scottish Academy (winning the Guthrie Prize in 1937); the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, the Scottish Society of Artists and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. In 1941 she was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society, becoming a full member in 1956, and became a Royal Scottish Academician in 1958. Armour taught still life painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1951 to 1962 when she retired from teaching and returned to painting full-time.[4]

In 1972 she was awarded the Cargill Prize at the RGIFA (Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts) becoming a full member of the RGIFA in 1977. In 1982 she was awarded an honorary LLD from the University of Glasgow. Armour was also elected Honorary President of the Glasgow School of Art and of the RGIFA, which awards the annual 'Armour Award' for a work of distinction by a young artist.[5][6]

Mary Nicol Neill Armour died on 5 July 2000.[4][7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
  2. ↑ Council for Parity democracy - Anniversaries of Distinguished Women of History Retrieved 18 October 2010
  3. ↑ ExploreArt-biography, Penelope Beaton Retrieved 12 November 2012
  4. 1 2 3 Artnet.com: Biography Retrieved 18 October 2010
  5. ↑ Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts - Annual Awards Retrieved 18 October 2010
  6. ↑ Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow - art collection, artist biography Retrieved 18 October 2010
  7. ↑ Christies Auctioneers: Biography Retrieved 18 October 2010

External links

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