Georgina
Georgina Smith (1929-2024) was a Scottish artist and peace activist. She grew up in the West of Scotland and went to art school in London in the 1940s, and later studied at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. After getting married following her art training and then raising her family in England, she returned to Scotland. From 1990 to 2024, she lived in a decrofted cottage surrounded by 100 trees planted by her in an otherwise largely treeless area. In the last few decades, she was able to concentrate on developing her art while living alone. Her output included many lino prints, which she created using simple tools and materials – floor lino from her house, a Stanley knife, a dessert spoon (she did not have a printing press), ink, and paper. Based on observation of her environment, family and friends, Georgina’s artwork often incorporates elements from her own life.
A core component of Georgina’s life was her anti-nuclear activism, for which she was imprisoned many times. In the 1980s, she was living in Leamington Spa and was one of the women at the Greenham Common Peace Camp. Together with Jean Hutchinson, she was involved in an appeal to the House of Lords against their convictions of trespass under the MoD’s RAF Greenham Common Byelaws 1985. After her move back to Scotland, she bought Peaton Glen Wood near Coulport and the wood has been used by activists to camp in as a base for anti-Trident protests. Even when advanced age prevented her from physically involved in direct actions, Georgina remained committed to her opposition to nuclear weapons and militarism until the end of her life. In the film Georgina: ‘Art, Morality and Law’ (dir. Lin Li | 2023 | 56 minutes), which features her artwork, poetry and other items from her personal archive, Georgina talks about her actions and prison experiences, and reflects on what ‘peace’ and ‘activism’ mean to her.