artistic development:

late nature paintings Later in life, alongside the collages and the convulsive landscapes, Colquhoun returned to painting nature. The flower forms of the natural world continued to be as significant to her as the imaginative forms of her inner world. These works, although the final image is naturalistic, frequently contain an automatic element, typically a passage of decalcomania. Her earlier preoccupation with the sexual forms of nature is diminished, if not entirely absent. The compositions are simple and straightforward, mostly of cut or specimen flowers (A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, 1980); or pieces of fruit. Still Life (1962) a rather earlier work in which fruit, vegetables and tea pot are placed in an arrangement stands out as an exception to the general rule of simplicity. With their bright vivid colours and compositional straight-forwardness, these undemanding works resemble nothing more than the output of an amateur Sunday painter finding inspiration from objects in the garden and kitchen. One imagines that they were painted purely for her own enjoyment.

formal training