Josephine Graham’s interest in art began as a pupil at Ayr Academy where she experienced a curriculum covering a broad spectrum of the arts, and it was also there that she had her first taste of performing to an audience. She went on to study singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and later to qualify as a teacher of music.
Although she continued to draw and paint, her career as a music teacher, coupled with an active social life that centred around her operatic singing, left her little scope to develop the natural talent that she possessed. It was only after starting her family of three girls in 1959 that, as her children grew up and attended school, she was able to turn to painting once more and take classes at Glasgow School of Art.
When she resumed teaching at Hutchesons’ Girls Grammar School she found that her success as an artist was increasingly making demands on her time. During the 1970s and onwards Josephine Graham completed many portrait commissions and produced a great many of her colourful still life paintings and figurative studies. As exhibitions and commissions took up more of her time, she took the decision in 1979 to leave teaching and concentrate on her painting.
She is known for her vibrant colourful still lifes but was equally active as a portrait artist for many years and completed many portrait commissions. She also enjoyed producing drawings and charcoal sketches, mainly of her family. Later in life she made numerous visits to Venice where one of her daughters lives, and produced paintings and pastel drawings inspired by these visits, including ‘Carnevale Couple’ seen today. She was the winner of the Hiram Walker Award at the Scottish Society of Women Artists, The Scottish Amicable Award, and three times the Lauder Award at the Glasgow Society of Women Artists. She was a regular exhibitor at exhibitions in Glasgow, Edinburgh and further afield.
Josephine Graham continued to work as an artist and exhibit into her 90s and passed away peacefully in 2025 at the age of 99.
We are grateful to the artist's daughter Josephine Graham for her assistance in writing this text.
Illustrated: Josephine Graham at work. Used with kind permission from her family.
