George Donald RSA, RSW
Title: Tow-haired Lassie
Date: 2008
Bronze, H 21cms x D 15 x W 11
I was delighted to be asked to contribute to this exhibition. We 2-dimensionalists are always a bit envious of sculptors. I, for one, have dabbled only once before in modelling a Head and, as a figurative artist and portraitist, I find it desperately difficult and fascinating in equal measure. Clay is treacherously tricky stuff and it is hard to make hand, eye and the imagination work together in harmony. The little Japanese garden painting is one of many I made after several visits to Kyoto, a city I love and in whose gardens and temples I have spent many contemplative hours.
Biography
George Donald is a painter and printmaker whose world travels have given him an international reputation. He trained at Edinburgh College of Art in the sixties before going to Hornsey College of Art, at that time a centre for new thinking and radical ideas in visual education. Subsequently he took a postgraduate degree at Edinburgh University, examining the theory that underlies the practice of teaching art.
An enthusiastic traveller, Donald has drawn inspiration from cultures in such diverse countries as Mexico, Thailand and Australia. He has been visiting professor in France, China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, and inaugurated Master classes at Miro’s print workshops in Mallorca. He has also worked with the British Council in Korea and India, and studied papermaking in the USA.
Early influences of the vivid colours, textures and patterns of his Indian childhood have remained indelible in his work, although the subject matter has evolved in response to dramatic Chinese landscapes, Japanese raked gardens, Indian bazaars and the Australian outback. Always there is a spirit of experimentation, private myth and a search for new kinds of mark making.
He exhibits regularly at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Printmakers, the Royal Scottish Academy and the RSW. His work can be seen in public and private collections in the UK and abroad including the V&A in London, Aberdeen Art Gallery, City Art Centre in Edinburgh, Miro Foundation in Spain, University of Edinburgh, Leeds City Council, University of Central Florida, ICI and BBC.
|
