Friends and family of Rory McEwen, the celebrated painter, sculptor, musician and TV presenter, gathered this weekend for the unveiling of a plaque at his former cottage studio, which has just been transformed into an artists’ residency.
Among them was artist and promoter Richard Demarco who has described his friend as a “genius” with a “love of life expressed through the many and varied aspects of his creativity as an exceptional human being.”
Others present included playwright and Commander of Clan MacEwen, Sir John McEwen.
Renowned for his skill on a 12-string guitar Rory was famed as a folk musician with a love of Scottish songs. Figures such as Van Morrison, Eric Burdon (of The Animals) and Billy Connolly have all cited him as an influence.
As a botanical artist Rory (1932-82) was described by Alistair Mackintosh as “probably the greatest living illustrator of the natural form”.
On top of this he was the presenter of the music programme Hullabaloo, a regular on Tonight (Britain’s most popular TV programme of the late 1950s), and hosted successive sell-out Edinburgh Festival shows with guests including George Melly, Dave Swarbrick (of Fairport Convention fame) and Bob Davenport.
Fogo, near Marchmont House (close to Greenlaw in the Borders) where he was brought up, was a place where he created some truly exceptional art during the 1970s.
A team led by former tech entrepreneur Hugo Burge is turning Marchmont into a hub for artists and creative businesses. The Fogo cottage, two miles away, has been bought and restored as part of its suite of high quality Creative Spaces studios and workplaces.
Rory’s daughters believe the Studio Cottage initiative is one their father would have been thrilled about.
Christabel Holland, one of his four children, said: “Rory first began making etchings when he was at Fogo and I remember the excitement of the huge and heavy press arriving, and the trays of acid which I found terrifying. He showed me how you could use a feather to move the acid across a plate without it being eaten away.
“My memories of the Fogo studio are all very happy ones; the Manse was across the road and my siblings and I were encouraged to go and visit Rory at work. He even let us make etching plates of our own.
“I am thrilled that Hugo Burge has added the studio to the already thriving creative community at Marchmont, and cannot imagine a more appropriate use for it than to support and sustain present day artists and musicians.”
Her sister, Flora McEwen, added: “My father absolutely loved the area and the countryside around it – he wrote songs about its history. I think my father would have really approved of what Hugo is doing with Fogo, he would think it was really great.”
Samantha McEwen also has fond recollections of her father at Fogo. She said: “My main memory is of Rory setting the place up. The etching press and the wood burning stove from Sweden that he was completely delighted and obsessed with.
“There was also the schoolhouse where he worked one summer. He hung tarpaulins from the ceiling. Those were years when he was exploring all sorts of new ideas.
“It is truly wonderful that the cottages are being used again as studios. I feel, like my siblings, that Rory would have been really delighted by this inspired turn of events.”
Fogo’s first artist to be based in the cottage is Richard Goldsworthy, who was awarded a month-long joint Marchmont and Borders Art Fair residency, and is using it to create drawings and preparatory work for sculptures. (see notes below).
He said: “This is a wonderful place to work, the heritage is amazing – and thanks to the residency I have the time and the space I need to really focus on my work.”
Hugo Burge, Director of Marchmont, said: “We’re delighted to be able to honour the memory and achievements of someone who was not just a man of towering talent but who was so well-liked and had such generosity of spirit. Indeed, Rory’s life and work are a symbol for all we are trying to do at Marchmont.
“I very much hope that Fogo will be an inspirational place for many more generations of artists and it’s a real pleasure to have someone of Richard Goldsworthy’s calibre here as our first artist in residence.”
Richard Demarco, who wrote a chapter for the book Rory McEwen: The Colours of Reality, said he is planning an exhibition exploring the links between him and Joseph Beuys – whose centenary is this year.
He said: “I was looking forward to seeing Rory’s studio in the world of Marchmont for the very simple reason that I am planning an exhibition celebrating the fact that Rory McEwen was the first British artist to collaborate with Joseph Beuys – in the Beuysian masterwork Celtic Kinloch Rannoch: The Scottish Symphony.” (see notes below).
The unveiling of the Fogo plaque took place as part of an open studios where the public could meet artists and makers in Marchmont’s Creative Spaces.
There was also a pop up showing work by members of Borders Art Fair who have had a residency in The Tower, one of Marchmont’s Creative Spaces.
- The Studio Cottage at Fogo is available for private hire and supported residencies/ retreats.
- For more about Rory McEwen and his art see https://www.rorymcewen.com.
- See also attached biography.
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Notes for Editors
For media information contact Matthew Shelley at [email protected] or 07786 704299.
About the Creative Informatics Resident Entrepreneur residency
- Richard Goldsworthy is predominantly a sculptor, but also creates works on paper. He has developed a pyrographic printing technique that uses burned blocks of carved wood to make marks on paper.
- Originally from Macclesfield, he trained at Edinburgh School of Art and graduated in 2019.
- The residency has provided him with time and working space to do large-scale work.
- Richard has an exhibition planned at Patriothall in Edinburgh later this year.
About Marchmont
- Marchmont House is a 1750 Palladian mansion near Greenlaw in the Scottish Borders.
- It was awarded the 2018 Historic Houses/Sotheby’s Award following a seven-year restoration, which was described by the jury as “stunning”.
- The house has one of the finest Georgian and Arts & Crafts interiors in Scotland.
- It is open to the public for a limited number of days each year, for tours and special events.
- The Marchmont team is dedicated to bringing the house alive as a home for makers and creators, celebrating innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship
- The Creative Spaces project is entirely privately funded by Marchmont Farms Limited and has not called on grants from the public sector or charities – which are facing immense demands for their limited resources.
- The studios and workshops have been created by the conversion of a series of 19th-century outbuildings round a courtyard near the house and its spectacular walled garden.
- The project’s value has already been demonstrated by the establishing of The Marchmont Workshop, which has saved the great 19th-century tradition of Arts & Crafts rush seated ladder back chairs for a new chapter in the Scottish Borders.
- Visit www.marchmonthouse.com for more information.
- For information about The Marchmont Workshop see https://themarchmontworkshop.com.
- Picture by Colin Hattersley.
About Hugo Burge
- Director of Marchmont Ventures which is building sustainable creativity in the arts, crafts and purpose driven business.
- Director of Marchmont Farms Ltd., which operates Marchmont Estate, with a focus on restoring Marchmont House and bringing it back to life after a period of institutional usage.
- Chairman of Motorway.co.uk, the UK’s fastest growing digital marketplace for selling your car from the comfort of your home.
- Former CEO of the Momondo Group which powers pioneering brands that shape and inspire global travel search.
About Rory McEwen’s links to Joseph Beuys and Celtic Kinloch Rannoch: The Scottish Symphony.
Richard Demarco said: “This manifestation of the Beuysian concept of ‘social sculpture’ was inspired by the folk music of Scotland and particularly that part of Scotland which is the heartland of the Clan McEwen in Argyllshire in what was once known as the Kingdom of Dalriada.
“Long before any other British artist, Rory McEwen added a distinct necessary dimension to what Beuys defined as a ‘Requiem for the Unknown Artist’.
“Rory McEwen’s contribution took the form of a film which defined the importance of the journey that Beuys made with his wife Eva and his young children, Wenzel and Jessyka, from Edinburgh towards the Moor of Rannoch.
“He also filmed what Joseph Beuys defined as an ‘Action’ depositing the elemental substances of gelatine and fat onto the surface of the Moor.
“Rory McEwen also contributed a poem as the words of a folk song that he composed, honouring the Scottish borderlands of Polwarth as an extension of his studio cottage as a focal point within the estate of Marchmont in the heartland of the inspirational world of the Scottish Border ballads.”