Denis Lowson
Denis Lowson's talent was clear at an early age when he won a scholarship to the Slade. He developed as a very versatile artist, excelling in many media.
Throughout his long painting career he resisted the fashionable “bandwagon” as he called it, of abstractionism, remaining essentially a representational artist, while experimenting successfully in expressionism and magic realism. In England he loved to travel around with the circus and to sketch backstage at any theatrical performance. Abroad too he painted many a carnival or fiesta. He lived a classic bohemian life of penury interspersed with brief periods of prosperity. He spent long working spells in countries like Mexico, Southern India, Bali or Haiti, wherever he could find a warm welcome and economic lifestyle. He practiced Yoga and studied Vedanta in his mature years, filling his notebooks with spiritual writings and poems. His brilliant cartoons are a kind of Gulliverian travelogue of exotic places and people.
We have chosen a number of his paintings made in and around Swanage. They reflect the centrality to his life and art of those around him who inevitably appear in the foreground of many of his paintings.
Throughout his long painting career he resisted the fashionable “bandwagon” as he called it, of abstractionism, remaining essentially a representational artist, while experimenting successfully in expressionism and magic realism. In England he loved to travel around with the circus and to sketch backstage at any theatrical performance. Abroad too he painted many a carnival or fiesta. He lived a classic bohemian life of penury interspersed with brief periods of prosperity. He spent long working spells in countries like Mexico, Southern India, Bali or Haiti, wherever he could find a warm welcome and economic lifestyle. He practiced Yoga and studied Vedanta in his mature years, filling his notebooks with spiritual writings and poems. His brilliant cartoons are a kind of Gulliverian travelogue of exotic places and people.
We have chosen a number of his paintings made in and around Swanage. They reflect the centrality to his life and art of those around him who inevitably appear in the foreground of many of his paintings.
