Thora Clyne SSWA 1937 – 2020

Scottish painter in oils & watercolours, teacher

Thora Clyne was born in Wick, Caithness and later lived at Milnathort, Kinross-shire. She gained her master’s degree with honours in fine art at Edinburgh University and College of Art in 1960, where her teachers included William Gillies and Derek Clarke. She was awarded a year’s postgraduate scholarship and travelling fellowship by the Andrew Grant Bequest. Immediately on graduation she was principal assistant at Aberdeen Art Gallery for a year 1960–1, before travelling to the USA to study printmaking at the University of Colorado. From 1963 she lectured part-time at Edinburgh College of Art.

She won several prizes including both the Anne Redpath Award in 1979, and a special prize in 1984, both awarded by the Scottish Society of Women Artists (SSWA), of which she was a member. Clyne regularly exhibited at Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours and at the Royal Academy. She also exhibited in group shows in France and America solo shows in Scotland, including at the Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh.

The Gillies Bequest at the Royal Scottish Academy holds examples of her work.