Bet Low RSA

Bet Low (1924-2007) was born in Gourock and studied at Glasgow School of Art alongside Ian Hamilton Finlay. She went on to study at Hospitalfield Summer School in Arbroath, where she was tutored by James Cowie, before working an art therapist.

Bet was introduced by Stanley Baxter to the Unity Theatre in Glasgow, which became a large part of her life, and it was here that she met her husband, fellow artist Tom Macdonald, who was the theaters resident designer. She also became associated with the Clyde Group of artists and writers. Her work focused on industrial and dilapidated areas, where she drew many war-damaged parts of Glasgow, particularly around the Clyde. Low was supported early on in her career by JD Fergusson, who invited her to show her work in 1956 when he organised the first open-air exhibitions on the railings at Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

Bet also had a deep love for the Scottish landscape, and she and her family made frequent visits to Hoy, Orkney. Here she found much inspiration for her landscape work, where she captured the brooding hills and mountains with the haunting and mysterious atmosphere unique to Orkney. Low was fascinated with light and its effect on the land and sea and explored this further in her abstract works.

She helped to establish The New Charing Cross Gallery in Glasgow which promoted contemporary Scottish art at a period when there were few such places in existence.

Low exhibited with the Scottish Society of Independent Artists; the RGI; the New Art Club (founded by JD Fergusson) and later at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. Her work can be found in many private and public collections throughout the UK including The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Perth Museums & Art Gallery; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh; The City Art Centre, Edinburgh and Glasgow School of Art.