Eileen Lawrence was born in Edinburgh in 1946. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art between 1963 and 1968.
The year following her graduation, she enjoyed her first solo exhibition at the 57 Gallery in her home city. She moved to London in 1969, where she lived for three years before settling in Germany for a while and returning to Scotland in 1973.
Lawrence’s style is one of detailed precision, reminiscent of the explanatory scientific drawings one can find in an anatomical or botanical manual. Through a surgical use of watercolours, the artist depicts objects of the natural world, such as feathers, rocks, pebbles and twigs, items collected by the artist on her visits to the countryside. Through these translations from nature to paper, Lawrence meditates on humanity’s spiritual relationship to nature.
Significant early exhibitions included participation in the 1977 Paris Biennale and the seminal touring exhibition Inscape organised by the Scottish Arts Council around the same period. In 1978 Lawrence secured her first major solo exhibition, held at the Arnolfini, Bristol. These exhibitions cemented Lawrence’s reputation, and acquisitions by the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland followed. In 1992 the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, held a retrospective of Lawrence’s practice and this toured to the Usher Gallery, Lincoln later that year. Since then, major exhibitions have been held at Drumcroon, Wigan; Worcester City Art Gallery; the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney; and the Mead Gallery, Warwick (1998).
