EDINBURGH.- The Royal Scottish Academy announced that Lyndsey Gilmour has received the 2026 RSA MacRobert Art Award for Painting.

Funded by The MacRobert Trust and administered by the RSA, the award provides £20,000 to support a painter whose circumstances have made it difficult to focus upon their artistic talent, enabling them to dedicate the resources necessary to further expand their practice.

Born in Glasgow, Lyndsey Gilmour currently lives and works in Aberdeenshire. She graduated from Gray's School of Art before completing an MFA in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Alongside her painting practice, Gilmour is a Lecturer at Gray's School of Art, an Early-Career Researcher and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Working primarily with oil paint and egg tempera on steel, Gilmour draws on the domestic environment. She studies everyday objects, using shadow to navigate the space between physical reality and abstraction. By painting on sheet steel and directly onto walls, her work references the surfaces it’s created on, while exploring the relationship these paintings have to the architectural spaces they inhabit.

The RSA MacRobert Art Award will support Gilmour in developing a new body of work exploring the home as a ‘compression chamber’. Through observing everyday domestic life, she will investigate the relationships between objects, routines and lived experience. Alongside developing new work in the studio, Gilmour will undertake research through visits to home studios and galleries across the UK and Belgium. This award will enable Gilmour to devote time to painting while balancing family life and full-time employment. The year-long period of research and development will allow her to deepen her practice and develop her technical skills.





Lyndsey Gilmour said: ‘I’m really grateful to have received the RSA MacRobert Art Award for Painting, which will give me the opportunity to be fully immersed in painting and bring greater focus and depth to my practice. I’m looking forward to the research and development period that lies ahead, to extend my knowledge and push my work forward. I’d like to thank The MacRobert Trust and the RSA for their support.’

Gillian Currie, Chief Executive Officer of The MacRobert Trust, said: ‘We’d like to congratulate Lyndsey Gilmour on receiving the 2026 RSA MacRobert Art Award for Painting. We know how transformative dedicated time can be for artists, particularly when balancing work and family commitments, and we're delighted that this award will provide Lyndsey with the freedom to develop an ambitious new body of work.’

Colin R Greenslade, RSA Director, said: ‘Lyndsey's proposal demonstrates a distinctive approach to contemporary painting, finding richness and complexity within the everyday spaces of domestic life. The RSA MacRobert Art Award looks to give artists the opportunity to devote meaningful time to developing their practice, and we are delighted that Lyndsey will be able to realise this exciting new project.

‘We are extremely grateful to The MacRobert Trust for their continued support. Their commitment enables artists at key stages in their careers to pursue ambitious research and experimentation, reinforcing our long-standing commitment to supporting artistic development in Scotland.’