Biography and current catalogue for

Katharine Cameron (Kate Cameron) RSW RE (1874-1965) 

A flower and landscape painter in watercolour, oil and gouache; book illustrator, as well as an accomplished etcher. Born Hillhead, Glasgow, 26th February 1874, the sister of Sir D.Y. Cameron and one of seven children of a country minister and his artistic wife. Kate Cameron studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1890 - 93 under Fra' Newbery and later at Colarossi's in Paris with Gustave Courtois. Her early watercolours were influenced by the Glasgow Symbolists, although less stylized. Between 1904 and 1910 she illustrated a number of children's fairy tales and legends, but her real love was flower painting. Her earlier flower pieces from the 1890s and early 1900s tend to be rich in colour and wet in technique but this gave way to a more delicate style with careful drawing and restrained colour, influenced by painters like Crawhall and Edwin Alexander. In 1928 she married Arthur Kay, the art collector and connoisseur. A prominent member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists, Kate Cameron exhibited widely both at home, at the RA from 1912-1963 and over 180 works at both the RSA 1894-1965 and the RGI 1891-1965 and internationally. She is represented in the V&A, BM, Glasgow AG, City Art Gallery, Edinburgh and a collection of 30 etchings is held by the Library of Congress, Washington DC.