SGSAH PhD intern Molly McCracken shares her research into The Studio, a pottery workshop owned and run by three women graduates of The GSA.
Our recently catalogued collection of artworks by former GSA student Mary Ramsay (DC 110) showcases the development of her skills and interests during her studies. These works lead up to the founding of The Studio, the Strathyre-based workshop in which Ramsay produced and sold her painted pottery wares.
Although Ramsay was a key figure at The Studio, she didn’t act alone: The Studio was a joint effort, undertaken alongside two of her fellow GSA alumni, Margaret Macdonald and Jessie Dunlop McCulloch Wilson. While less is known about Macdonald and Wilson, both were key contributors to the business. Their shared involvement with The Studio speaks to the collaborative nature of artistic production.
So, who were Macdonald and Wilson, and how did The Studio come to be?
The GSA’s Student Registers show that Mary Ramsay completed her Diploma during 1914-1919. Margaret Macdonald (no relation to Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh) was enrolled at GSA from 1910-1915, while Wilson was a student from 1912-1917. During the 1914-1915 session, the three women would have overlapped. However, it’s unlikely they would have attended the same classes, as each was at different stages of their Diploma. Nonetheless, each of these artists listed their address in Student Registers as 488 Cathedral Street. Ramsay based her studio at this address during her Diploma course (1914-1917). It is presumably here that the women developed the relationship that culminated in their shared endeavour at The Studio.
Research by Heather Jack suggests that this shared address was not an entirely random coincidence. She notes that Wilson, along with her father and step-family, resided in Bridge of Allen with the Ramsay family around the year 1901. At this time the Ramsays ran Salem, a sanatorium, and it is suggested that Wilson’s stay there was due to a period of poor health. In this case, the two women would have been familiar with one another prior to their attendance at GSA. They may have chosen their residence at Cathedral Street accordingly.
Though the artists studied at GSA across different sessions, each remained involved with the School after completing their Diplomas, taking a range of part-time and evening classes to further their studies. In these post-graduate years, Ramsay would have continued to work alongside Macdonald and Wilson, as the women each continued to develop skills and expertise that would eventually come to fruition at The Studio. While Wilson completed her professional training as a Teacher of Art at GSA, qualifying in 1921, Macdonald was already working as an Art Teacher, but remained a part time student taking evening classes in Pottery from 1920-1922. At the same time, Ramsay was studying Modelling and Pottery, suggesting another possible moment of collaboration between the women at GSA. Indeed, contained within GSA’s collection of Mary Ramsay’s artworks is a single drawing by Jessie Wilson (DC 110/1/1/18). The inclusion of Wilson’s work in Ramsay’s collection suggests the close working relationship the artists would have shared both during their studies and beyond.
We know that Mary was likely the central organiser of The Studio in Strathyre – records suggest that at times, as the sole driver of the group, she would have travelled across Scotland to fire their works at industrial kilns. There are fewer surviving records and artworks that reveal Macdonald and Wilson’s level of involvement in the business. Nonetheless, given the prominence and equal standing of each artist’s name in The Studio’s signage, we can assume that it truly was a collaborative endeavour. Wilson was a co-owner of The Studio from at least 1928-1929. The business likely passed hands between the group across the decades, after Ramsay married her husband Edgar King in 1940 and thereafter spent progressively more time in England.
As researcher Heather Jack suggests, designs from The Studio were attractive and, significantly, relatively simply to reproduce, making their pottery easily marketable and available to sell to larger audiences. The decision to use premade blanks rather than to produce their wares from scratch suggests an economical decision not uncommon at the time. It was advantageous to work with, not against, industrial potteries for large-scale production.
The works from The Studio generally display the mark of an individual designer, but they remain united by a common use of floral motifs and bold colours. In this way, they also bear the influence of ceramic designs by Ann Macbeth, an artist and educator that taught a range of courses, including Pottery, at GSA from 1902-1921, and would very likely have taught Ramsay, Wilson and Macdonald at various times during their studies. Wilson, in particular, is noted as having a productive relationship with Macbeth, even volunteering alongside her in the Tea Room of GSA’s Belgian Tryst fundraiser in 1915. It’s likely too that The Studio also produced and sold textile-based works; both Wilson and Macdonald demonstrated skills in embroidery during their studies. Macdonald was awarded a certificate for excellence in Needlecraft in 1914. Like Macbeth, they frequently combined their work across both mediums.
Unfortunately, like many similar collaborative artistic enterprises, The Studio was unable to survive the economic and social pressures of the Second World War. The shrinking market for decorative products during times of austerity and rationing meant that many potteries in Scotland closed. Meanwhile, the rise of industrial firms in England increased competition across the country. The Studio’s relatively isolated location made the work more labour-intensive and expensive, contributing to the reduced involvement of the women in their later years. Ramsay, Macdonald, and Wilson all passed away in the 1960s, though Ramsay’s family maintained a connection to The Studio until her husband’s death in the mid-1980s.
While The Studio no longer exists, pottery and other artworks by the artists survive in a number of private collections, as well as in The GSA Archives and Collections.
Sources:
Dickson, Kay. “Strathyre Studio”. Scottish Pottery Historical Review, vol. 13
Jack, Heather. “Strathyre Revisited”. Scottish Pottery Historical Review, vol. 27
