Donald McIntyre was born in 1923 in Leeds but of Scottish parents. He spent the most memorable years of his childhood in the west of Scotland. A group of artists lived near his home in Garelochhead and he was befriended by James Wright RSW. Under the tutelage this important artist he developed a palette firmly rooted in the Scottish Colourist tradition. However a professional career beckoned he moved to Glasgow to train as a dentist. Fortuitously the dental hospital was located opposite the Glasgow School of Art and he was able to take advantage of the evening classes.
He remained as a dentist, working in the British Army and then in the school service until the age of forty. It was only then, encouraged by the Howard Roberts gallery in Cardiff, did he take the crucial decision to entirely devote himself to painting.
Until relatively recently his painting year has followed a set course. Several weeks are spent in the first part of the year drawing and making coloured sketches in situ of his chosen part of the country. A campervan allowed increased mobility and the facility to explore and stay in some of the more remote parts of the UK. This was by no means without discomfort, as late winter could often bring freezing conditions or severe gales. The second part of the painting year would find him in his studio, working on the larger paintings taken from his drawings. Decreasing mobility in recent years has meant his base has been a remote cottage rather than an unheated campervan and not being able to clamber down cliffs for the perfect viewpoint.
McIntyre has lived in North Wales for the past 45 years and is a retired member of the Royal Cambrian Academy. He was formally a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, and the Pastel Society. He has exhibited widely with solo exhibitions in the Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, Thackeray Gallery, London and Racines Gallery, Brussels, amongst others.
“I have been back to places that have changed and I've been very sad,” he says. “Some places don't change though. That's really why I like the coast; I am drawn to it because it is timeless. I think it's because I lived on the coast as a boy. I just love it.”
Here, he indulges his love of light and colour, his deep feeling for the textures and movement of sea and grass. Houses, usually whitewashed, stand solid as rocks in their midst. “I find I see something in the landscape - light or something - that makes me want to paint and it goes on from there,” he says. “It's an obsession.”
Recent years have seen recognition for his work widen across the UK and seen him become one of the most collected artists working in Wales.
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