“There has always been a sort of painting that resists the written word, it is drawn from the eye and the heart and is about the experience of the present moment. I suppose my own work is of that kind” (Donald Hamilton Fraser).

Donald Hamilton Fraser was one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic modernist painters of the generation of British painters that emerged in the years following the second world war. He established himself by participating in many of the most significant exhibitions of British work, including the Royal Academy’s 25 years of British Painting, where he was also a Royal Academician and Trustee since 1995. His highly acclaimed work was exhibited in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, and many other cities around the world.

Donald's predominant subject matter was landscape. Here he combined his Scottish descent and his affinity with French painting from his study there in the 1950's, after gaining a French Government scholarship to Paris. This is greatly reflected in his style and execution. He layered thick bright paint with a palette knife to produce an almost collage effect, as well as subtle washes of colour and minute detail. The landscapes remain close to their origins whilst forming abstract almost dream-like fields of colour.

His technical approach illustrates his luminosity of vision, his skill at depicting the purity of light, his masterly colouristic understanding, and his desire to convey more to the view than simply what is present – to give an internal and philosophical insight into the magic of nature.

Contrasting in style and highlighting Donald's diversity are his wonderful chalk and wash drawings of dancers. Each one captures individual character and emotion whilst revealing his intimate knowledge of dance.

In their expressive flowing quality and virtuoso technical skills, these drawings are very different from the brilliantly coloured semi-abstract qualities of his landscape paintings. He remarked that he was “hooked by the extraordinary way in which the language of ballet confers sheer physical beauty on a person”. Ballet for him was the three dimensional equivalent of painting, or, as he put it “dancers can draw like Rodin, but they do it with their bodies”.

After much study and travel including tutoring at the Royal College of Art, contact with the post war Ecolé de Paris, and a long relationship with the Royal Academy, Donald lived with his wife Judy, by the river at Henley on Thames.

Railings Gallery
5 New Cavendish Street
London W1G 8UT United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 79351114
info@railings-gallery.com
www.railings-gallery.com

Opening hours
Monday - Thursday from 9.30am to 6pm
Friday from 9.30 to 5.30pm
Saturday from 10am to 5.30pm