Alison Kinnaird Explained

Alison Kinnaird
Landscape:no
Origin:Edinburgh, Scotland
Birth Date:30 April 1949
Label:Temple Records
Associated Acts:Battlefield Band

Alison Kinnaird MBE, MA, FGE[1] (born 30 April 1949)[2] is a glass sculptor, Celtic musician, teacher and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland.[3] She is one of the foremost and most original modern glass engravers in Scotland.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Portrait

Her application to art college having been rejected,[12] Kinnaird earned a MA in Celtic studies and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, in the course of which she also studied copper wheel glass engraving with Harold Gordon in Forres, [13] [14] having met him while on a family holiday there.

Kinnaird's glass engraving works are in many galleries and private collections. She has been commissioned to create pieces for the Royal Family such as an engraved goblet for the late Queen Mother, a bowl for Charles and Diana's wedding, also a blue disc for the Emperor of Japan, and the Donor Window in the Scottish Portrait Gallery.[15] She uses lead and optical crystal. The techniques used by Kinnaird include copper-wheel engraving, cutting, sandblasting, acid etching and casting. Starting in a studio in the High Street, Edinburgh, her work won early recognition and was included in an exchange between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Salzburg Fringe.[16] Later, believing that the small physical size of works produced in traditional glass engraving confines their appreciation to a limited audience, she expanded the scale of her works by using flexible drive engraving and sandblasting, combined with the adventurous use of dichroic glass.[17] More recently she has employed bonded coloured glass as her engraving medium. Kinnaird is also a musician, a gift that led her to discover relationships between music and glass engraving, notably through designs based on Lissajous figures.[18] [19] She started playing the harp at 14 and has been credited with starting the Scottish harp revival and the Celtic harp renaissance.[20] She plays, teaches and lectures on the small Scottish harp also known as the clàrsach.[21] She was one of the first acts signed to Temple Records during the 1970s and she has had eight albums released through the label.[22] She worked with the Scottish music group Battlefield Band on their albums Music in Trust Vol I (1987) and Music in Trust Vol II (1988).

Kinnaird has written many books about traditional music and the small Scottish harp. Her first book on the subject was published in 1990 and is a collection of 24 harp tunes that she arranged. Tree of Strings (1992), written in collaboration with Keith Sanger, documents the history of the harp in Scotland and is the first book of its kind. The Lothian Collection (1995) has 25 harp tunes from the big houses and great families from East, West and Midlothian all arranged by Kinnaird. The Small Harp Tutor (1996) is a book about learning to play the small harp, which covers the history of the instrument, maintaining the instrument, arranging tunes and gives useful finger exercises. The book is accompanied by a 60-minute CD, which guides the learner from novice to more accomplished player. Kinnaird's most recent book is The North East Collection [23] which features tunes mainly from the 18th and 19th century arranged by herself.

In 1997, Kinnaird was awarded the MBE for her contribution and long standing service to art and music.[24] In 2011 National Life Stories interviewed Kinnaird for their 'Craft Lives' archive. The interviews took place over three days and document her life from childhood to becoming a successful artist and musician. She has been recognised for her contributions to Scottish folk music and was inducted into the Scots Trad Music Awards – Hall of Fame in 2010.[25] Alison Kinnaird was married to the musician, producer and writer Robin Morton until his death. She has two children, Ellen and John.

Awards

Memberships

Teaching

Selected exhibitions

Selected collections

Selected commissions

Books

Bibliography

Discography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fellow, Guild of Glass Engravers. en. 2020-05-24.
  2. Book: The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Colin Larkin. Guinness Publishing. 1992. First. 0-85112-939-0. 1382.
  3. Web site: Alison Kinnaird. en. 2020-02-28.
  4. Web site: Information and History - Scotland's Glass - Alison Kinnaird. 2020-03-04.
  5. Robert B. McNeill, A portrait in light and music Scots Magazine, March 2005, 338-342
  6. Web site: Temple artist shows her glass by opening her home for Fringe. en. Midlothian Advertiser. 2020-02-28.
  7. Web site: Alison Kinnaird discusses her explorations of the timeless by pairing traditional techniques with contemporary themes. en. Urban Glass. 2020-02-28.
  8. Web site: Duncan Macmillan reviews five shows from across Scotland. en. The Scotsman. 2020-02-28.
  9. Alison Kinnaird - Art in Glass. 2020-03-04.
  10. Web site: Craft Scotland - Alison Kinnaird. 2020-03-04.
  11. Web site: Pittenweem Arts Festival - Alison Kinnaird. 2020-03-04.
  12. News: The art school reject who became one of the world's top glass artists . 16 January 2023 . BBC News . 15 January 2023.
  13. Web site: Harold Gordon at work. 2020-03-05.
  14. Web site: Alison Kinnaird . National GallerieS . 2019-09-19.
  15. Web site: Brown . Angie . January 16, 2023 . The Art School Reject Who Became One of the World's Top Glass Artists . March 1, 2023 . BBC News.
  16. Mary Gladstone, Of Clocks, Birds and Apple Cores, Scotland’s Crafts Guide, Summer 1977, 20, 10-11
  17. Alison Kinnaird, British Glass Engraving, The Search for Perfection, Contemporary Glass Society Newsletter, Glass Network, September 2011, 2-6
  18. Robert B. McNeill, A portrait in light and music, Scots Magazine, March 2005, p338-342
  19. Senai Boztas, Alison Kinnaird, Neues Glas, Spring 2006 (1/06), 18-25
  20. Book: Jackson, Stevan R. . Tartan and Strings: Ethnography of a Musical Culture . Kendall/Hunt . 2004 . 0-7575-1530-4 . Dubuque, IA . 104.
  21. Web site: The Scottish Harp. YouTube. 2020-03-04.
  22. Web site: Temple Records artists page. 12 July 2019.
  23. The North-east Collection, Alison Kinnaird, Music Sales Corp 2003,
  24. Web site: Kinnaird, Alison, Clarsach Player and Teacher and Glass Engraver, serv Music and to Art . https://web.archive.org/web/20110613165543/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/new-year-honours-list-1316552.html . 2011-06-13 . limited . live . The Independent . 31 December 1996 . 2020-03-01.
  25. Web site: Alison Kinnaird MBE. 2012-10-24. Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. en-US. 2019-09-19.
  26. Web site: Guild of Glass Engravers. 2020-03-02.
  27. Web site: Broadcasting Council for Scotland. 2020-03-02.
  28. Web site: Contemporary Glass Society. 2020-03-02.
  29. Web site: Glass Art Society. 2020-03-02.
  30. Web site: Scottish Glass Society. 2020-03-02.
  31. Web site: Urban Glass. 2020-03-03.
  32. Web site: Northlands Creative. 2020-03-03.
  33. Web site: Bild-Werk Frauenau. 2020-03-03.
  34. Web site: Johansfors Gallery. 2020-03-03.
  35. Web site: Europäisches Museum für modernes Glas. 2020-03-03.
  36. Web site: British Glass Biennale. 2020-03-03.
  37. Jennifer Opie, Crafts, Decorative and Applied Arts Magazine July/August 1998, 153, 29-31
  38. Web site: Kunsthal KAdE. 2020-05-26.
  39. Web site: Coleridge-London's Contemporary Art Gallery-Alison Kinnaird. 2020-03-04.
  40. Web site: Habatat Galleries. 2020-03-11.
  41. Contemporary Glass Society Newsletter, Interview by Dan Klein, Glass Network 2004, 13, 1-3
  42. Psalmsong - Alison Kinnaird. 2020-03-04.
  43. Web site: Tutsek Foundation. 2020-03-11.
  44. Jennifer Opie, The Burlington Magazine, May 1994, 344
  45. Web site: ST MARY'S CHURCH, KENARDINGTON Diocese of Canterbury . 2021-07-16 . www.rochester.anglican.org/resources/church-buildings-dac/church-reordering-case-studies/church-reordering-case-studies.php.
  46. Web site: Reflections...the art of Alison Kinnaird Part 1. YouTube. 2020-05-28.
  47. Web site: Reflections...the art of Alison Kinnaird Part 2. YouTube. 2020-03-04.
  48. Web site: Celebrating Glass Art in Downtown Tacoma. 2020-05-26.
  49. Web site: Stained Glass Windows. 21 August 2019. 2020-03-05.
  50. Liz Hoggard, CRAFTS, July/August 2001, 171, 22-23
  51. Web site: National Life Stories: Crafts Lives. 2020-05-26.
  52. Psalmsong with Shadow Banner Engraved glass; digitally printed shadow. 2004. New Glass Review. 25. 25. 2020-03-03.
  53. Web site: Temple Records. Templerecords.co.uk. 11 June 2020.
  54. Web site: The Silver String, Alison Kinnaird, Gael Linn, 2004. Folkmusic.net. 2020-03-09.
  55. Web site: musicscotland.com. 2020-03-09.
  56. The Scots Magazine, The Harp Key, September 1996
  57. Bond, L, Alison Kinnaird, The Harp Key, Dirty Linen, page 73 Aug/Sept 1996
  58. Evans, D, Alison Kinnaird The Harp Key, Taplas, Jun/July 1996

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alison Kinnaird".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.