Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland, Caring for the Collection is a project that will focus on Art in Healthcare’s vast art collection, enabling us to undertake a programme of maintenance and conservation of artworks currently in our art store.
We are delighted to have the support to recruit two technical roles, who will be dedicated to working with collection artworks and improving how they are stored safely. In November, we appointed Giulia Gentili, our Technician, who brings several years of experience working with a wide range of artists and organisations as an art technician, fabricator and artist.
Followed by the recruitment of our Collection Technician Apprentice, Mina Brennan, who will work closely alongside Giulia. Together, they will review, maintain and restore artworks, with the aim of placing them in hospitals, care homes and community spaces across Scotland. In addition to gaining hands on experience working with the collection, Mina will gain a Museum and Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship [SCQF level 7] qualification.
As part of this project, and to celebrate Art in Healthcare’s 35th Anniversary, Mina has launched a blog exploring 35 works from the Art in Healthcare Collection and her findings from her apprenticeship.
Image: ‘At A Window’ by David Michie
Welcome to the Twelfth blog post from the Collection Technicians!
This week we’ll be looking at a piece of work by David Michie titled ‘At A Window’.
David Michie grew up in France before returning to Scotland in 1934. He then went on to study at Edinburgh College of Art. Michie’s Mother was the renowned artist Anne Redpath, who became well known for her striking still life paintings and portraits.
Image: ‘At A Window’ by David Michie in the Art in Healthcare store
This pice titled ‘At A Window’ shows an abstract view of a landscape, with flowers and plants in the foreground and a red border framing a vibrant landscape. Michie found inspiration all around him, from things he noticed on his travels as well as from smaller moments like time spent in gardens. Interestingly his work has a connection with other work in our collection through his friendship with Elizabeth Blackadder and her husband John Houston. Their garden was a direct inspiration for his painting ‘Pink Garden (The Garden of Elizabeth Blackadder and John Houston)‘ which is part of the Fleming Collection. After his studies, Michie won the Andrew Grant travelling scholarship alongside John Houston. They travelled to Italy in 1953 and both talk of how important the trip was for their painting.
Michie believed so much in the importance of travel for artists that a David Michie Travel award was created in 2016 alongside the RSA to fund a period of travel and research for a studying painter.
In 2023, The Scottish Gallery curated an exhibition titled ‘The Early Years’ which showcased Michie’s work. In this exhibition paintings from time spent in Skye and Fife sit alongside paintings of Boulogne. Michie found inspiration all around him, and his intrigue for the world can be seen in each of his paintings. An interview David Michie did as part of Artists Uncovered can be found on the Art in Healthcare youtube page. In this interview Michie talks about his work and his philosophy. He says “I’ve responded to the things I’ve seen around me, common things, familiar things and I’ve tried to find a way of giving them shape. I’ve looked at people. looked at gardens, looked at jazz bands’.
“My message is to capture the romance of something one has seen”
His paintings are all about looking, noticing and documenting. From certain colours he wants to remember to his favourite gardens, the act of noticing and looking at the world is what Michie’s paintings ask us to remember to do.
Caring for the Collection is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland.
Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to dedicate time to improve the condition of our artworks currently in our store, so that they will be able to be displayed in health and social care settings across Scotland.
Museum & Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship is supported by Museums Galleries Scotland provider of the apprenticeship, mentor and SCQF level 7
22 April 2026 by
Amy Miles