Archibald Peddie

Archibald Peddie 1947

Archibald Peddie was born in Helensburgh, Scotland in 1917.

Despite his family being unsupportive of his artistic ambitions, in the mid to late 1930′s Archibald studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He funded his studies partly with a number of commissioned pieces for various venues in Scotland but mainly by working as a salmon fisherman on the River Tay. His talents at the Glasgow School of Art won him a scholarship to study in Italy, however the outbreak of Word War II in 1939 meant this would never happen.

During the war years Archibald abandoned painting and served in the Parachute Regiment. In 1943 he married Elizabeth Bowman whilst on leave.

After the war he took a teaching position at Naemoor School near Rumbling Bridge, Kinross-shire where he taught art. When not teaching he split his time between painting in a small studio set up in a converted stable at Naemoor or working in his garden; gardening would be a major love for Archibald throughout his life.

In the early 1950′s Archibald and his family moved to Rockmount in Yetts ‘o Muckhart where his wife Elizabeth was to care for her sick mother. Although Archibald continued to paint and sketch profusely, the lack of space to use as a studio and limited funds to devote to his art resulted in much of the work he produced in this period being small scale and favouring less costly materials.

After Elizabeth’s mother died they stayed in Muckhart where Elizabeth and Archibald both taught in the surrounding areas, although to Archibald the teaching was never something he enjoyed seeing it as a hindrance to his painting.

In the late 1950′s Elizabeth gained a welcome legacy from a distant aunt. She decided to use this to fund a series of summer holidays in Spain. The contrast of the colours and light in Spain to the familiar Scotland injected a new vibrancy into Archibald’s work which is reflected in the majority of pieces produced during the 1960′s.

Self Portrait

In 1966 the Peddie family moved to Grayswalls, a converted croft house by the River Carron, near Falkirk which would be the final family home. Here Archibald had the luxury of a spacious studio and began to produce larger works. He spent an equal amount of time in the garden and walking in the surrounding countryside. During the 1970′s he appeared to rediscover Scotland – he learnt Gaelic, dabbled with the bagpipes and, much to the amusement of his grandchildren, would insist on wearing a kilt on smart occasions. He began to favour large atmospheric Scottish landscapes and seascapes as a subject yet he often retained some of the dramatic use of colour that he had discovered during the summers in Spain.

Throughout the 1980′s he continued his Scottish landscapes as well as views inspired by short trips to Europe. His work began to take on a more delicate structured quality, he enjoyed experimenting with the translucency possible with acrylics and abandoned the expressive heavy textured oil brushwork of the 60′s and 70′s.