Married in 1925, the artists Beatrice L. Huntington (1889-1988) and William Macdonald (1883-1960) established a strong artistic partnership that was to last the entirety of their lives.
Both came into the marriage with established artistic visions, William having already trained in Paris and visited Spain, a country that was to become key to his artistic output, and earned him the moniker William ‘Spanish’ Macdonald, as recognition of his personal passion for the country and the success of his views of its landscapes.
William’s work took a journey through much of his and Beatrice’s life together, and it’s significant locations and show the range of his artistic interests, a commitment to portraiture but largely a compulsion to capture his surrounding landscape; at home in Edinburgh, out his New Town studio window, and further afield, the locales of Kirkcudbright, Spain and Canada.
In general, as an artist he had an individual perspective with a restrained palette and compositions founded on his strong draughtsmanship. Some works were in oil, but he was always committed to drawing, and had trained in printmaking while in Paris.
Spain was his greatest inspiration, and the subject of many of his most successful compositions; it inspired him to be ambitious, as in ‘Spanish Hill Town’ where human architecture meets monumental nature.
