Died: February 27, 2025
Kathryn Marie Tribe, née Kynoch, who has died aged 83, was a distinguished portrait painter known for painting many eminent Scots in a wide range of fields; her work can be found in many university collections.
Born in Edinburgh, after attending grammar school in Leicester she returned to Scotland to study under David Donaldson and Geoff Squire at the Glasgow School of Art from 1959 until 64.
After an extra year of postgraduate study, she won a travelling scholarship to study in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. In the early 1960s she also studied for short periods at Patrick Allan-Fraser School of Art, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, under James Cumming.
She was a part-time evening school lecturer in the Glasgow School of Art for ten years, and in 1994 was elected an artist member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.
She almost always painted from life and her work combined lovely painterly qualities with successful likenesses. Her sitters included many well-known Scots, one of the first of which was Professor Alec Macfie, the Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at Glasgow University, who had seen her portrait of Rosemary Atkins (which he bought and is now displayed in the Hunterian Art Gallery)
She also painted Sir William Kerr Fraser, vice-chancellor of Glasgow University, Professor Alec Macfie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy, the nuclear physicist Professor Philip Dee, and the economist Sir Alec Cairncross.
Her portrait of Glasgow’s Lord Provost Sir Donald Liddle hangs in the City Chambers. She painted a portrait of Lord Wheatley, the former Chief Justice Clerk of Scotland at his home in Edinburgh as a commission for Stirling University where he chaired the University Court.
The noted Scottish economist Professor Fraser Noble chose Kathryn to paint his portrait for the University of Leicester; she completed the work in Aberdeen.
Kathryn always preferred painting her portraits from life, rather than from photographs, A rare posthumous portrait was of Willie Ross MP, which is in the Government Art Collection.
Even her formal portraits have a gentle sensitivity, while her portraits of family and friends have a marvellous freedom and spontaneity. She excelled at capturing the young, their spirit and appetite for life.
She was elected an artist member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2021, and was much appreciated by many. As artist Rosalie Furlon remembers, “She was in my class at GSA and envied for her ability.” Painter David Donaldson echoed this, ” I had a great respect for her talent.”
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Artist Sheana Stephen Ashton reminded me that she was a member of Glasgow Society of Women Artists, which was established in 1882 by eight of the first women students at the Glasgow School of Art and flourished until the 1970s.
Gordon Gibb, who recently sat for Kathryn, also paid tribute describing her as a great portrait painter and a lovely lady.”
“I sat for her just a few years ago, after lockdown, and we had the greatest conversations while she painted me, in sessions lasting a couple of months,” he said.
“I was amazed by her knowledge, her talent and her commitment to portraiture. I also loved the piles of dry paint on her palette to which she added at every sitting, making them grow into mini polychrome tower blocks. She was a lovely talented lady.”
I myself repeat what I wrote back in the 1980s, while reviewing her show at Glasgow’s JD Kelly Gallery.
“Kynoch is one of the best in that notoriously difficult art form – portraiture. Her pastels of children and oils of musicians are superb. This sensitive touch is also applied to Colourist-style still lifes and landscapes, but her real gift lies with people.”
Her work hangs in many public collections including Kelvingrove, the Dick Institute, plus Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leicester Universities, and Dover House, Whitehall, London.
She is survived by her husband Michael Tribe and her sister Josephine.
CLARE HENRY