Dawson Murray

posted by Abi Baikie December 14, 2015

Dawson Murray has over 50 years experience in etching and has recently been elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers (ARE). Currently based in Fife, Dawson is a well-established Scottish artist whose portfolio includes a 50ft high painting; a permanent feature in the Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow. After living with multiple sclerosis for 22 years, he is now quadriplegic and creates prints with the assistance of an eye tracking device and through his own version of the traditional sugar-lift technique that allows him to “replicate the bleeding edges of areas of colour” that he so enjoyed in watercolour painting.

Solely working with his preferred medium of etching however, hasn’t hindered his work from exuding the transient movement, light and energy that he sees in nature surrounding him; the notion that inspires his practice. Some of his prints are actually often mistaken for watercolours, due to their unpredictable yet graceful form. 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. We are left lingering, drawn to the tranquillity of a beautiful moment waiting for it to eventually glimmer or sway like our ever changing environment.