Born 1944, Glasgow
Elected ARE 2015
Died 13 December 2022
Dawson studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 - 66 then spent two years in Italy where he studied under Giuseppe Santomaso in Venice. He then moved to Sicily where his painting was inspired by the heat and landscape surrounding him. Returning to Scotland he then spent 35 very happy years involved in art education. He began at Dumbarton Academy, and in 1977 he was asked to develop and head up the art department of Bearsden's newly-built Boclair Academy, from its opening till he retired in 1995. He was much loved by his students for his likeable, supportive and fun-loving nature.
Dawson was a well-established and respected artist whose portfolio included a 50ft high painting; a permanent feature in the Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow. He was a member of the Glasgow Group for 30 years. In the 1980s he was closely involved with the Richard Demarco Gallery.
He worked in both watercolour and etching. He lived with multiple sclerosis for many years and even once quadriplegic was still able to create prints with the aid of an assistant, using his own version of the traditional sugar-lift technique, allowing him to "replicate the bleeding edges of areas of colour" that he so enjoyed in watercolour painting.
Some of his prints were often mistaken for watercolours, due to their unpredictable yet graceful qualities. Both paintings and prints capture a rich depth of colour which is then broken and abstracted by a reflective and fluid light that seems to skim across the surface of the work.