Rowan Paton is an award-winning painter, living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Statement
Paint provides an immediacy of mark that no other material imparts. It is instant, decisive, luxurious, bold, yet nuanced. The satisfying repetitive drag on linen, applied, reduced, re-applied, washed away, applied again, holds a unique appeal for me.
If the interplay between materiality and narrative is found lacking or absent, it can be frustrating, depressing even. When they interlock, however, it is the reason I continue to make images. Providing purpose and stability, it is still the most surprising, challenging and soothing process - painted contexts to be absorbed by and disappear into.
Education
Yale University School of Art, MFA Painting & Printmaking, CT, USA
University of Edinburgh, Post Graduate Diploma Education, Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh College of Art, BA Drawing & Painting, Edinburgh, Scotland
Exhibitions
2025 (upcoming) Velarde Gallery, Summer Exhibition
2025 The Scottish Gallery, Still Life | The Beauty of the Ordinary, 3rd April - 5th May 2025
2024 Royal Scottish Academy, Frontiers: Painting in Scotland Now
2024 Royal Scottish Academy 194th Annual Exhibition of Art and Architecture
2023 Wanderings, Patriothall Edinburgh
2022 SSA Annual Exhibition
2021 Totally Overwhelmed, Irving Gallery, Oxford
2020 SURGE, Tatha Gallery and Visual Arts Scotland, Newport-on-Tay
2021 Adjust / Adapt, Visual Arts Scotland/SFMA, Leith Theatre & online
2020 Resonant Strangeness - Marram Arts
2020 F L O W - Visual Arts Scotland
2020 SSA | VAS OPEN Royal Scottish Academy, National Galleries of Scotland
2019 Royal Scottish Academy 193rd Annual Exhibition of Art & Architecture
2019 Bloc Gallery
2019 Settle Doon, Place + Platform
2019 Gone Fishing, DOK, Edinburgh
2019 Visual Arts Scotland ALIGHT 2019
2019 Lost All Reason & Direction
with Alan Grieve, Tent Gallery, ECA, Edinburgh
2019 SSA Annual Show, RSA, National Galleries
2018 Tatha Gallery, Current
2018 Detail
2018 Royal Scottish Academy Annual
2018 The Suttie Space, GHAT - Replay
2018 SSA & VAS Together 2018
2017 Detail, It's All In The Detail, Edinburgh
2017 Visual Artist Unit Annual, Glasgow
2017 RSA Summer Show
2017 Edinburgh Art Festival, as part of Place + Platform's Reject/Respond/Repurpose
2017 Rock Trust Postcard Exhibition
2017 Before We Were Even Dreamed, with Andrew Phillips
2017 DOK Artists Space, Death or Glory, as part of city wide Audacious Women Festival, Edinburgh
2016 DOK Artists Space, Works on Paper, Edinburgh
2016 RGI, 153rd Royal Glasgow Institute Show, Glasgow
2016 SSA, Society of Scottish Artists Annual, National Galleries of Scotland
2016 VOXEL Gallery, featured artist, August-September
2016 RSA Annual, National Galleries of Scotland
2016 SWA Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2016 Cupar Arts Festival, LIMINAL, Fife
2016 Newave Gallery, Aberdeen
2015 Royal Scottish Academy Annual, National Gallery's of Scotland, Edinburgh
Teaching
Edinburgh City Council / ECC Community classes: Drawing techniques, mixed media Sculpture
Yale University, assistant Drawing tutor
The Drawing Room, NGS
Awards/Publications
Edinburgh Printmakers Edition Award, RSA Annual 2022
The Royal Drawing School, Dumfries House Residency 2021
W Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordon Smith Award 2020
Open Eye Gallery Award 2020
RSA Annual Edinburgh College of Art Libraries Prize 2018
Imagio Mundi - Benetton Collection 'Scotland' 2018
Society of Scottish Artists, 2017 Greyfriar's Prize
Ellen Battel Stoeckel scholarship for Yale Summer School of Art & Music
Grampian Hospitals Trust Wood Group Student Prize
Collections
Marchmont House
Dumfries House
The Bank of Montreal
Grampian Hospitals Art Trust
Edinburgh College of Art
Statement
Paint provides an immediacy of mark that no other material imparts. It is instant, decisive, luxurious, bold, yet nuanced. The satisfying repetitive drag on linen, applied, reduced, re-applied, washed away, applied again, holds a unique appeal for me.
If the interplay between materiality and narrative is found lacking or absent, it can be frustrating, depressing even. When they interlock, however, it is the reason I continue to make images. Providing purpose and stability, it is still the most surprising, challenging and soothing process - painted contexts to be absorbed by and disappear into.
Education
Yale University School of Art, MFA Painting & Printmaking, CT, USA
University of Edinburgh, Post Graduate Diploma Education, Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh College of Art, BA Drawing & Painting, Edinburgh, Scotland
Exhibitions
2025 (upcoming) Velarde Gallery, Summer Exhibition
2025 The Scottish Gallery, Still Life | The Beauty of the Ordinary, 3rd April - 5th May 2025
2024 Royal Scottish Academy, Frontiers: Painting in Scotland Now
2024 Royal Scottish Academy 194th Annual Exhibition of Art and Architecture
2023 Wanderings, Patriothall Edinburgh
2022 SSA Annual Exhibition
2021 Totally Overwhelmed, Irving Gallery, Oxford
2020 SURGE, Tatha Gallery and Visual Arts Scotland, Newport-on-Tay
2021 Adjust / Adapt, Visual Arts Scotland/SFMA, Leith Theatre & online
2020 Resonant Strangeness - Marram Arts
2020 F L O W - Visual Arts Scotland
2020 SSA | VAS OPEN Royal Scottish Academy, National Galleries of Scotland
2019 Royal Scottish Academy 193rd Annual Exhibition of Art & Architecture
2019 Bloc Gallery
2019 Settle Doon, Place + Platform
2019 Gone Fishing, DOK, Edinburgh
2019 Visual Arts Scotland ALIGHT 2019
2019 Lost All Reason & Direction
with Alan Grieve, Tent Gallery, ECA, Edinburgh
2019 SSA Annual Show, RSA, National Galleries
2018 Tatha Gallery, Current
2018 Detail
2018 Royal Scottish Academy Annual
2018 The Suttie Space, GHAT - Replay
2018 SSA & VAS Together 2018
2017 Detail, It's All In The Detail, Edinburgh
2017 Visual Artist Unit Annual, Glasgow
2017 RSA Summer Show
2017 Edinburgh Art Festival, as part of Place + Platform's Reject/Respond/Repurpose
2017 Rock Trust Postcard Exhibition
2017 Before We Were Even Dreamed, with Andrew Phillips
2017 DOK Artists Space, Death or Glory, as part of city wide Audacious Women Festival, Edinburgh
2016 DOK Artists Space, Works on Paper, Edinburgh
2016 RGI, 153rd Royal Glasgow Institute Show, Glasgow
2016 SSA, Society of Scottish Artists Annual, National Galleries of Scotland
2016 VOXEL Gallery, featured artist, August-September
2016 RSA Annual, National Galleries of Scotland
2016 SWA Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2016 Cupar Arts Festival, LIMINAL, Fife
2016 Newave Gallery, Aberdeen
2015 Royal Scottish Academy Annual, National Gallery's of Scotland, Edinburgh
Teaching
Edinburgh City Council / ECC Community classes: Drawing techniques, mixed media Sculpture
Yale University, assistant Drawing tutor
The Drawing Room, NGS
Awards/Publications
Edinburgh Printmakers Edition Award, RSA Annual 2022
The Royal Drawing School, Dumfries House Residency 2021
W Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordon Smith Award 2020
Open Eye Gallery Award 2020
RSA Annual Edinburgh College of Art Libraries Prize 2018
Imagio Mundi - Benetton Collection 'Scotland' 2018
Society of Scottish Artists, 2017 Greyfriar's Prize
Ellen Battel Stoeckel scholarship for Yale Summer School of Art & Music
Grampian Hospitals Trust Wood Group Student Prize
Collections
Marchmont House
Dumfries House
The Bank of Montreal
Grampian Hospitals Art Trust
Edinburgh College of Art