Set within one of the most picturesque landscapes of
Scotland lies the Town of St Andrews. From its breath-taking scenery to its
vast and outstanding history, St Andrews has always been able to inspire those
around her. Artists in particular have found the town to be an incredible
source of interest, most notably in the 20th century when some of St Andrews
most famous artists including Annabel Kidston, Ada Hill Walker, Jozef Sekalski
and the McKenzie Sisters, found a name for themselves.
While the Museum is probably most well-known for its
chemist, grocer’s shop and dentistry items, there are a variety of materials
contained within the collection that relate to the social history of St
Andrews. This includes a number of artworks which, due to the small nature of
the Museum, is rarely on display. Some
of the images on display relate to the artist and model makers listed below
Jack Inglis
Jack was born in St Andrews in 1933 and was a pupil
at Madras College. He joined the Byre Theatre Company when he was 10. He
dedicated his life to Theatre and Arts and excelled in stage designing and
model making. He worked for many important theatres in London as a Production
Assistant or a Stage Designer. His talent caught the eyes of many and he
collaborated with famous names of the theatre and cinema industry.
In 1960, he formed Toltec Studios with two
companions in South London. The company supplied plans, drawings and scale
models to prestigious institutions such as the Royal Opera House. From 1965, he
produced scale models of famous buildings for the British Tourist Authority.
They used them to represent Great Britain at World Fairs. In 1967, he produced
Visurama, a son et lumière show depicting the history of St Andrews. His models
appeared in several movies and he even got a commission for a scale replica of
the Windsor Royal Lodge's ‘Octagon Room’ from the Queen Mother.
In 1987, Jack moved to Bournemouth. He lectured in
Stage Technique and Music Appreciation. He continued designing sets and advised
Amateur drama clubs on local productions.
Visurama
Toltec Studios produced Visurama in 1969 and 1970.
It was an innovative way to use models in an animated show. The shows were a
combination of scale models and slides projections. Recorded sounds, dialogues
and music evoked scene after scene stories and characters from St Andrews.
Bill Maguire, theatre technician and lighting
expert, elaborated the storyline. He used the writings of Hay Flemings, a
famous St Andrean historian to recreate the protagonists' dialogues. Ken Inglis
prepared the slides illustrating the story. A.B. Paterson, creator of the Byre
Theatre, together with other locals, provided the voices of the soundtrack.
Their distinctive pronunciation of English transmitted a truly St Andrean
atmosphere. Famous actors such as Pamela Binns and Andrew Faulds also lent
their voices for the occasion. Robin Don, from Newport, created a special stage
for the models. A keyboard allowed the show master to move the models from a
distance. Images seemed to appear and vanish in clouds thanks to a slide
projector and a cloud effects projector. Water, snow and fire effects added a
realistic touch to the show.
The show lasted 90 minutes and was on each year for
a six-week season. They first performed it in the Preservation Trust Museum at
12 North Street in 1969. Every day, children aged 6 and over discovered the
history of St Andrews as Jack and his colleagues performed the show in local
schools. The Torch Club in South Street also welcomed them daily.
Making the models
Jack Inglis designed his models with a high level
of precision. His unique tools were a knife blade and his fingernails, which he
manicured to a point. Building such models required hours of observation but also a lot of patience. It was sometimes
difficult to obtain detailed plans of famous buildings such as Big Ben. Ken
Inglis, Jack’s brother and a photographer for the BBC, contributed by taking
pictures and enlarging them to the scale Jack wanted to work at.
Jack used all sorts of materials to build his
models. These were balsa wood, card, plaster, dental wax, paint, or anything
suitable to achieve a realistic impression. The similarity of colours between
the monuments and their models is striking. Jack donated the Visurama models to
the Preservation Trust in 2008, and they are on display in the Museum for all
to admire.
Annabel Kidston
Agnes
Annabel Kidston was born in 1896 in Glasgow where she grew up. Her first
encounters with art were through her art teachers Agnes Raeburn and Bessie
Young. She attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1918 to 1921 and then
studied in Paris and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. There, she studied
painting and more importantly wood engraving under Thomas Smith until 1926. She
became a part-time teacher as Head of the Art Department of Laurel Bank School.
She
moved to St Andrews in 1936 to join her sister Margaret. Soon after her
arrival, in 1937, she co-founded and became the president of the St Andrews
Preservation Trust. She and other famous St Andreans (Ronald Cant, A.B.
Paterson etc.) appreciated the unique architectural and historical character of
the town and understood that the town expansion could threaten it.
Between
1941 and 1946, together with her friends and fellow artists Alison and Winifred
McKenzie, she became instructor in drawing and engraving for the Committee for
Education for the Forces. They held classes three evenings a week and were
notable for the work done with the Polish soldiers during their station in St
Andrews. Under their teaching, many of the soldiers revealed to be extremely
talented and displayed their artworks in prestigious galleries in both St
Andrews and Edinburgh.
After
the war, she became a part-time instructor of drawing and painting at Duncan of
Jordanstone, College of Art and Design in Dundee. Simultaneously, she involved
herself with the St Andrews Art Committee of which she became the first
Chairman and later the President in 1972. She also became one the first members
of the St Andrews Art Club. In 1965, Annabel bought, restored and lived in
21-23 Market Street, situated in one of the oldest parts of the town.
She
exhibited her artworks at many occasions at the Royal Society of Arts and at
the Royal Society of Watercolours. She also had exhibitions on her own in
Edinburgh, Helensburgh and St Andrews. A member of the Society of Print Makers,
she produced illustrations for Jonathan Cape, the Glasgow Bulletin Saltire
Society, and Chambers Encyclopaedia. Glasgow and Manchester galleries as well
as the Ashmolean in Oxford acquired some of her prints.
Annabel
Kidston died in 1981 in Berwickshire but a court bearing her name in Market
Street, next to her home, still commemorates her in town.
The McKenzie Sisters: Winifred 1905-2001 and Alison 1907-1982
Winifred
and Alison McKenzie were born in Bombay. Their father, George McKenzie, trained
as an architect with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and planned to set up a
partnership with him. However, he went instead to India to join the family
sawmill business.
In
1923 Winifred enrolled in drawing and painting classes at Glasgow School of
Art, where a lecturer Chica McNab, introduced her to colour woodcuts. Alison
followed Winifred to Glasgow School of Art and became one of the leading
students in Design and Textiles. They completed their art training at the
Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London.
The
sisters moved to St Andrews in 1940 with their mother and set up home at 3
Playfair Terrace. For the next four years, the sisters and their friend,
Annabel Kidston, taught drawing and wood engraving to the allied forces
stationed in St Andrews during the war.
In
1944 Winifred taught at Dundee College of Art where she as the first art tutor
to introduce a wood engraving class for Diploma students. Alison joined her in
the department two years later. When their mother became ill, the two sisters
job-shared in order to care for her.
The
McKenzie sisters were part of what became known as the ‘St Andrews Group’; a
close-knit artists’ community, which included Annabel Kidston and Roberta and
Josef Sekalski of Bell Rock House. Both Winifred and Alison had their work
accepted every year by the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. Winifred’s Blue Table was purchased by the Duke of
Edinburgh, after being exhibited at the summer exhibition of 1963. The St
Andrews Preservation Trust holds a number of works by Winifred and Alison
McKenzie.
