The late-bloom success of Lorna Robertson and Andrew Cranston
Natalie Whittle, Financial Times
January 2024
Andrew Cranston and his partner Lorna Robertson paint in adjoining studios separated by a bare concrete wall. North light filters through high windows at the back of the building on the river Clyde in Glasgow – a steady light that does not streak like the southern sun. It is rather grey, but good, Cranston says, for the unhurriedness that both artists need.
Standing in his studio’s symphonic arrangement of calico scraps, spineless old books, saucepans (used for canvas bleaching), bright stalagmites of paint, and an oil‑smeared kettle whistling to the boil, Cranston looks upward to the 12ft ceiling. “I always think the space above your head is really important, in some unconscious way.” Painting in a low-ceilinged room is hard, he says. Carpets are a no-no too. He and Robertson laugh fearfully at the thought. […]