ABOVE Katherine Cowtan lives in Fintry, a village outside of Glasgow with 300 homes.
By Patricia Belyea
FINTRY UK When Katherine Cowtan was young, she wanted to be an artist. Not a spinner and weaver like her mother, but a painter.
Can you guess where this story is headed? Even though Katherine wanted to study Fine Art, at Art College she became a weaver!
BELOW It takes three days for Katherine to warp her loom.
For 15 years Katherine worked as a freelance woven-textile designer in the London area. The work was exciting and demanding — weaving samples on a hand loom for fashion designers and then commissioning mills to produce the fabric on a larger scale.
Eventually Katherine moved to Scotland and turned to painting. When Victoria and I visited, we stepped into a studio filled with luminous landscape paintings and limited-edition wool scarves.
BELOW The colors in Katherine’s paintings and scarves resonate with each other.
These days Katherine combines her artistic sensibility with decades of textile expertise to produce her own woven pieces. Once the warp is set on the loom, she can dramatically alter the final cloth simply by changing the weft yarns.
BELOW Look at the fringe. These two completely different colorways were woven on the very same warp with different weft yarns.
Katherine shared the best textile advice she’s ever received, passed along by her spinning teacher:
“Choose the type of fleece for the type of yarn for the type of cloth you want to make.”
Katherine’s woven designs are not tartans — the iconic Scottish textile tradition. Instead they are painterly interpretations of the Scottish Lowlands — with the shifting colors and the ever-changing light.
BELOW Katherine’s view behind her home — with the colors of Spring.
Ultimately the young woman who dreamed of becoming an artist did exactly that — with both a weaving shuttle and a paintbrush.
BELOW Take a peek around Katherine’s studio, full of color and texture.
To visit Katherine’s website +click here
BONUS CONTENT
Before driving to Fintry, Victoria and I visited Glasgow Cathedral. My favorite architectural detail was the Millennium Window. This stained glass triptych, designed by John K Clark and made by Derix Glasstudios in 1999, glowed with its cool blue palette.
Patricia and Victoria are currently in the UK scouting exciting people and places for their inaugural Great UK Quilt & Textile Journey. To be on the Interested List for this Summer 2027 tour, email Victoria +here.
