Emma Smith Gillies (1900–1936) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US *Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska *Potters, New Jerse ...

best known for her early adaptation of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

painted vases and jugs.

Pottery

Emma Gillies was born in the small town of Haddington, outside the city of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in Scotland. In Haddington, Gillies joined the Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes (SWRI) in the early 1920s and was taught by Catherine Blair, a founder of the Institute, how to decorate blanks in the Mak’Merry Pottery style. Shortly thereafter, her talents led her to teach classes in the decoration of blanks to new members of the SWRI with Betty Wright, a founding member of the Mak’Merry Pottery collective In 1929, Gillies moved to Edinburgh where she began to attend pottery classes in the Sculpture Department of

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, the only program which offered Pottery Classes at the College. There she studied under the tutelage of renowned sculptor and Head of School

Alexander Carrick Alexander Carrick (20 February 1882 – 26 January 1966) was a Scottish sculptor. He was one of Scotland's leading monumental sculptors of the early part of the 20th century. He was responsible for many architectural and ecclesiastical works ...

until her graduation in 1932 where, in her last semester, she took part in an Exhibition of Metalwork and Pottery "at 5 Ramsay Lane nEdinburgh" published in the Edinburgh newspaper ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' on 3 December of that year. Not a week later, the same publication announced that Gillies had been awarded a one-hundred pound Travelling Scholarship to the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. The following academic semester, Emma Gillies attended the Royal College of Art in London under

William Staite Murray William Staite Murray (1881–1962) was an English studio potter. Biography He was born in Deptford, London and attended pottery classes at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1909 - 1912. He worked with Cuthbert Hamilton, a member of t ...

, one of the foremost Scottish potters of the 20th century. However, Gillies was unable to finish her studies in London due to poor health which forced her to return home after completing only a year. Despite her illness, Gillies was exhibited in the prestigious Art Exhibition of the

Society of Scottish Artists The Society of Scottish Artists is a Scottish artist-run organisation which seeks to ''promote and encourage experimentation and the "adventurous spirit" in Scottish art.'' It was founded in 1891 by Patrick Geddes, William Gordon Burn Murdoch and ...

in October 1935 to critical acclaim before her death at the age of thirty-six in March 1936. After her death, her older brother and famous Scottish

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

and

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

painter

William George Gillies Sir William George Gillies (21 September 1898 – 15 April 1973) was a renowned Scottish landscape and still life painter. He is often referred to simply as W. G. Gillies. Life Gillies was born in Haddington, East Lothian and is brother o ...

painted many of her works as still lifes to memorialise her through his own work. In 2012, several of her art works were discovered at

. There have been two exhibitions which showed her work posthumously.

Readings

* Orton-Hatzis, Anna. "Emma Gillies: Rediscovered", ''Scottish Pottery Society Annual Review'', May 2015. * Soden, Joanna. ''Emma Gillies: Potter and Muse'', Royal Scottish Academy, February 2006.

Exhibitions

* Exhibition of Metalwork and Pottery, Edinburgh, December 1932 * Art Exhibition of the Scottish Society of Artists, Edinburgh, October 1935 * Potter and Muse, RSA Library Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, April 2006 – 30 July 2006 * Emma Gillies Rediscovered, University of Edinburgh Library, Edinburgh, December 2014 – March 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillies, Emma Smith 1900 births 1936 deaths Scottish potters Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Art Deco artists Women potters 20th-century British ceramists Scottish ceramicists Scottish women ceramicists