Tribute has been paid to Perthshire artist, teacher and former president of the Perthshire Art Association Angela Thomson, nee Christina Angela Liberkowska (her painting name), who has died aged 76.
Angela finally succumbed to Motor Neurone Disease after fighting for three years with the condition.
She passed away peacefully at home in her sleep on Saturday July 6 surrounded by her family and friends who cared for her fondly.
The Perthshire Art Association said: “She will be missed deeply”.
Angela Thomson was proud of her father’s Second World War Polish roots
Born in Acharn by Aberfeldy on December 11, 1947, Angela was the daughter of a Polish-born Second World War soldier Stanley and her Acharn-born mother.
During the Nazi invasion of Poland, her dad’s life was turned upside down at the age of 14 when the Nazis sent his family to Auschwitz.
He was young and fit so he got sent onto Birkenau, where he was sent to farms for forced labour. He had a succession of escapes but was repeatedly recaptured.
After some time, he was sent to France to work for Rommel on the ‘Atlantic wall’. Eventually he managed to escape from there and finally avoided being recaptured by fleeing to Britain.
Here he joined a Polish combat unit as a gunner and ended up in Caen (France) for a bloody battle two weeks after D-Day. He was injured and there were only a handful of survivors from his unit.
He returned to Britain and was sent to Kenmore to stay in Taymouth Castle hospital to recover from his injuries.
Upon recovery, he ended up working as a nurse, where he met his future wife (Margaret McCowan – niece of Andrew McCowan who started McCowans Toffee) who also nursed. After the war ended, he took his family over to Soviet Poland for a spell, bringing aid and supplies.
Angela Thomson trained as an artist in Dundee and became an art teacher
Born in Perthshire, Angela attained her art degree at Duncan of Jordanstone College at Art and Design in Dundee from 1965 to1969, under the tutelage of James McIntosh Patrick and Alberto Morroco.
It was there she met her life long friends Kate Lochery and Sheena Evans. She married her husband Ian Thomson in 1972 and went onto become a teacher of art in Glasgow but had to eventually quit in 1976 with the birth of her son David (those were the days when pregnant women were expected to stop working).
She went on to have a daughter Jana in 1978. Eventually she made it back into schools as a specialist teacher of art where she travelled around all the schools in Perthshire teaching children art skills.
She travelled extensively including India, China and Egypt.
Her interest in art continued and she attained a masters in art history though the Open University.
Angela Thomson held various positions in art world and exhibited widely
Angela has paintings in private and municipal collections in Norway, Holland, North America, England and Scotland.
She was a member of the Scottish Society of Women Artists founded by Lily McDougal and won the prestigious Lily McDougal Award.
She was also a president of the Perthshire Art Association and brought the association in to the modern era by commissioning a new website for them.
Angela attended many classes during her time with the association and enjoyed figure drawing.
In addition, she would travel every year to a week long painting retreat at Flatford, home of renowned artist William Turner, with her close friend Sheena.
Angela, who was also a founding member of the Polish Link Association, exhibited every year until her condition made painting impossible.
She has donated part of her body to medical science to help develop a treatment for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in the hope that others may benefit in the future. She also has an Etsy shop link etsy.com/shop/AngelaLiberkowskaArt where all the profits generated are donated to MND Scotland.
Angela’s funeral takes place on Friday at 3pm in Perth Crematorium.
Conversation