Allan MacDonald

Allan studied at Edinburgh College of Art, leaving with an honours degree in Drawing and Painting

“I’ve drawn or painted more or less all my life, with a childhood dominated by artistic activity, most of it through my own motivation. Several things led to this. My father was a headmaster who actively encouraged the arts as a form of education, which was unusual at the time. Also, we had no television and few other outlets for creative leanings, so early on I became acquaint with the need to generate my own momentum. Being an artist is a fairly solitary life so the ability to be self-propelled as a child has come in useful ever since.”

“My work changed when I came across the paintings of the Canadian artist Tom Thomson, one of the ‘Group of Seven’. Since then I have painted in many remote parts of Northern Scotland, always carrying boards and canvases with me, not usually sketching but doing full scale paintings.”

Allan has exhibited widely, with solo shows in London and also in his native Scotland.