Women Artists: Female Artist Focus on Moira Beaty
I discovered Moira Beaty on eBay.
I know that doesn’t sound very auspicious, but I like to spend my evenings scrolling through art online, and occasionally I’m moved to buy something to add to my small collection - which mainly consists of work by women artists.
I’m particularly interested in artists with a good backstory. Curiously, artists with a good backstory are often women. I don’t know if this is because their work is less often so celebrated as that by men, meaning that when you discover them there’s a whole life to uncover.
As it was, when I stumbled upon a small, rather grim portrait titled, Old Woman, Sarajevo, by a female artist I’d never heard of, I was intrigued to read about her. The painting was dark and a bit sad, but there was something compelling about it all the same. And it was masterfully executed. I bought it.
A close-up detail of ‘Old Woman, Sarajevo’ by Moira Beaty
Who was Moira Beaty?
Moira Beaty (born Jessie Moira Munro) died in 2015 at the age of 92. She was, according to those who knew her, unassuming, self-effacing, determined and fiercely intelligent. Born in Prestwick, Ayrshire in 1922, she was set for a career as an artist. She had been offered a scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art. But war intervened.
The backstory
This is where Moira Beaty’s story gets a little unusual. She took a job at Bletchley Park as a typist. Here, she quickly demonstrated extraordinary aptitude for code breaking. For the remainder of the war, she was the only woman cryptographer working on the main volume of traffic covering western Europe, and with others, was instrumental in cracking the Enigma code.
After the war, Beaty resumed her studies at the Glasgow School of Art, and went on to train and work as a teacher at Holyrood Secondary School.
‘School Bus Windows’ by Moira Beaty
Life as an artist
In the early 1980s, she moved with her husband, Stuart Beaty to the Scottish Borders. There she worked sporadically as a supply teacher at Hawick High School. There, according to the Gracefield Art Centre, she found a special relationship with “remedial, non-certificate girls who provided subjects for much future painting”.
'Quiet Moment’ by Moira Beatty, image courtest of the Antiques Trade Gazette.
However, she had continued painting and drawing throughout. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1979 at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh and the Collins Gallery in Glasgow.
Her work was displayed in an exhibition of ‘Four Scottish Painters’ at the Cadogan Contemporary Gallery in London and around Dumfries, at the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Glasgow Institute and Scottish Society of Women Artists, to which she was elected as a professional member in 1974.
By Moira Beaty, image courtesy of the Gateway Gallery, Altrincham.
In an obituary in The Scotsman, Beaty is described as an “accomplished draughtsman, showing a definite energy balanced by a feeling of peace and serenity”. Another writer refers to her youthful enthusiasm and a sense of fun throughout her long life.
Her own account of her work was simple. She said:
“I paint my life.”
To me, her work is full of colour, poignancy and joy.
And to think, I discovered this entire wonderful story simply because a small, slightly dark portrait happened to catch my eye. There is so much incredible work by women artists to discover. Many have had fascinating, sometimes challenging lives. And many deserve more recognition than they get.
Moira Beaty, 1922-2015. Image courtesy of the Whitehouse Gallery.