This contemplative work by Victoria Crowe (b. 1945) draws the viewer into a richly symbolic space where inner thought and external reality converge. Messages and Connections unfolds across a tripartite composition: on the left, a shadowed profile emerges from layers of text and ancient scripts; at the centre, a pale, meditative void offers visual and psychological pause; and to the right, a dynamic tangle of lines rises from a vivid blue vessel - containing a red figure - set against a fiery red backdrop. Painted in oil on board, the work exemplifies Crowe’s nuanced use of texture, colour, and visual metaphor. Created during a period when she was increasingly engaged with the emotional and metaphysical dimensions of life, the painting speaks to the universal themes of memory, loss, and the fleeting nature of existence.

Victoria Crowe OBE ARSA RSW FRSE, born 1945

Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, Crowe studied from 1961 to 1965 at Kingston School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. She has lived in Scotland since 1968, when Sir Robin Philipson invited her to become a part-time lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, where she has taught ever since. She lives in the Borders with her artist husband, Mike Walton. A painter of still lifes, interiors and landscapes, she is also an accomplished portrait painter. Among her sitters have been the Earls of Wemyss and March, Tam Dalyell MP, Tom Morgan, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Tom Johnston, Principal of Heriot-Watt University.
Crowe's work, whether oil painting, watercolour or drawing, is instantly recognizable. Her distinctive palette and themes have been enriched by visits to Italy, Madeira, Egypt and India.