Joyce Gunn Cairns MBE

Joyce Gunn Cairns MBE trained in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, having previously completed a degree in German and Comparative Religion at Aberdeen University. She has become one of Scotland’s most cherished artists, with nine works in the permanent collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, five works in the permanent collection of the City Art Centre, and works in other major collections including Balliol College, Oxford and Jesus College, Cambridge. She was awarded MBE for services to the arts in the June 2004 Queen’s Honours List.

Drawing on her deep sensitivity and appreciation of literature, at the core of her practice is expressive figurative work, including portraits and wildlife studies. From some of Scotland’s most eminent cultural figures to an otter or a dormouse, whatever the subject, Joyce draws them with the same delicacy of perception and appreciation. These apparently gentle works are at the same time direct and probing, revealing very much more than their surface appearance.

Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman, March 2021, “ The subtle accomplished works of Joyce Gunn Cairns are a pleasure to spend time with, and tend to yield greater depths the longer one looks at them.”