Mary Bourne RSA is an artist based in the rural north east of Scotland. Trained at Edinburgh College of Art and a John Kinross Scholar in 1985, her professional experience has included numerous public commissions, including interpretative artworks at Bennachie, Aberdeenshire; Mallerstang, East Cumbria; and Mugdock Country Park, Milngavie. She has worked with high profile architects like Page/Park (Eden Court Theatre) and Malcolm Fraser (Scottish Poetry Library), as well as with the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust and Historic Environment Scotland on a contemporary carving project for the sixteenth-century Riddle’s Court on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Earlier in her career, Bourne taught part-time at ECA and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. She has led numerous education projects, including stone carving master classes at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. More recently she has been collaborating with fellow artist, Lynne Strachan, on a project called Cabrach Reconnections. This Creative Scotland funded project has involved a rounded exploration of a remote depopulated upland area in the North East of Scotland and has resulted in a multi-media touring show exploring the issues facing the people who live there.
Bourne has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom and abroad. She has received a number of prizes and awards including the Meyer Oppenheim Award (1997) and Ireland Alloys Award (1996), both from the Royal Scottish Academy. Internationally, she has been an invited participant at symposia in America and Japan.
