In 1975 she spent six weeks in Japan studying Sukiya architecture which led to her using a very limited palette of colours but with an emphasis on texture and materials.
[4] A commission for a thirty-foot tapestry woven at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh for the headquarters building of the General Accident insurance company in Perth was completed in 1983.
[2] A solo show of Ainsley's work was held at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow in 1987, included a semi-autobiographical installation entitled 'Why I Choose Red', and was her first major one person exhibition in Scotland.
[8] Ainsley is a respected and published spokeswoman for the visual arts and her own artwork is in a number of public and private collections nationally and internationally.
[12] Scottish Women Artists: 250 Years of Challenging Perception (2023), Dovecot, Edinburgh; Transforming Tradition; Scottish Women Artists (2022), Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; On John Berger (2022), Zembla Gallery, Hawick; New Scots, RSA Edinburgh, Atlas of Encounters at I Space Gallery, Chicago and Athens, Live your questions now and Studio 58 Mackintosh Museum, GSA and After Growth and Form at Glasgow Print Studio.