Ann Finlayson

Ann Finlayson was an English painter, draughtsperson and teacher. She worked as an assistant to Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley from 1969 to 1971. She was best known for her abstract watercolours.

Personal life and education

Ann Elizabeth Finlayson was born in Glasgow, the daughter of artist Helen Hay. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art in 1960, the Kingston School of Art from 1960 to 1964 and the Royal College of Art from 1965 to 1968. She won the E. Q. Henriques gift at the Royal College of Art in 1968 and the Daler-Rowney watercolour award at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1984. She married ceramicist John Barham Adams in Surrey, England in 1995.

Art career

Finlayson worked as an assistant to Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley between 1969 and 1971. She worked as an assistant to Alistair Grant in 1971 and assisted Leonard Rosoman with large scale murals from 1972 to 1974. She worked as an assistant to Ken Baynes, an exhibition consultant for the Welsh Arts Council, from 1972 to 1976.

Solo exhibitions

1969 – New Art Centre, Sloane Street

1975 – Triad Gallery

1976 – Oxford Gallery, London

1982 – Stirling Gallery

1985 – Adam Gallery, London

1997 – Thornton Bevan Arts, London

Group exhibitions

1985 – Artists Against Apartheid

1994 – London Guildhall University

1974 – Oxford Gallery

2019 – “Works on paper” Trent Art Gallery, Newcastle Under Lyme

Royal Academy Summer exhibitions

Finlayson had the following works selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition:

1970: Exploding Rectangle

1972: Maze, Release and Volcano

1973: Silent Spaces, Bands of Time and Metamorphosis

1974: Black Diamond Vortex

1975: Wind and Reflection

1976: Waves

1980: Tapestry

1981: Pools

1982: Sunlit Flower and Tulip

1983: Four Objects

1984: Sea Edge and Sea Horizon

1985: Window 1

1987: ''The Child is Mother of the Woman''

Collections

Her work is held privately and in the following public collections:

Teaching

1970 – 1971: Exeter College of Art and Design, visiting lecturer
1971 – 1972: Vauxhall Manor Secondary School
1976 – 1978: City and Guilds of London Art School, part-time lecturer
1976 – 1990: Kingston Polytechnic
1978 – 1984: Berkshire College of Art
1984 – 1985: London Guildhall University

Illness and death

Adams was diagnosed with multi-system atrophy, similar to Parkinson's disease, in 1995. She was told she had between five and ten years to live. Unable to create art and finding it “difficult to come to terms with her illness” she committed suicide on 10 June 1999, age 57. Together with a suicide note, she left “literature about voluntary euthanasia.” Following her death, Finlayson's husband lodged a formal complaint with the government, calling for a “radical improvement in arrangements between police detectives, officers and surgeons” in order to reduce stress on the bereaved.