Mary Sturrock was the daughter of the designer and embroider, Jessie Newbery and the director of Glasgow School of Art, Fra Newbery, who commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design the Glasgow School of Art. As such Sturrock grew up at the heart of the Glasgow Style revolution, which is apparent in this watercolour. She went on to become a member of the Edinburgh school and a close friend of Anne Redpath. This gift from her descendants, Keith and Nicky Roberts, is already hanging in the Redpath show in Berwick. It will also be an ideal work for future Scottish Women Artists shows.   

Mary Newbery Sturrock, 1892-1985

When she was six years old, Sturrock carried the ceremonial key for the opening of the Mackintosh building at Glasgow School of Art, which had been commissioned by her father, the School’s director, Francis Newbery. She would later study there, specialising in embroidery, as her mother Jessie had, and botanical illustration. Sturrock was a close friend of the artist Cecile Walton and her husband Eric Robertson; one of Walton’s major early paintings is of Eric and Mary. She became close to Charles Rennie Mackintosh during the First World War when he lived near the Newberys in Walberswick, and drew and painted flowers alongside him. She also worked in ceramics, ink drawing and embroidery.