Timeline

1920

Born in Grangemouth, Scotland

1937 - 1940

Trained at Edinburgh College of Art

1938

Andrew Grant Scholarship

1941 - 1946

Military service with the Royal Artillery

1942

Won the Guthrie Award for the best painting by a young artist at the Scottish Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

1946 - 1947

Jazz musician, married Janet (Billi) Gaul

1948 - 1949

Travelled around Europe, exhibited in Florence and Venice. Peggy Guggenheim bought one of his works from the Venice show.

1949

Making Jewellery and Silverware, Jazz musician, birth of daughter Jane

1956 - 1959

Winner of the Gregory Fellowship in Painting at Leeds University.

1956

Prix Guggenheim, Musee d'Arte Moderne, Paris, France

Visited New York where he met leading Abstract Expressionists William de Kooning and Mark Rothko

1959

Teacher, Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, England

1960 - 1980

Gliding: 2000 hours soaring in England, Switzerland, USA

1963 - 1970

Experiments in lithography

1971 - 1979

Concerts and recordings of Spontaneous Music

1971

First Musical Record Published

1972

Awarded C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire)

1977

Lecturer, Royal College of Art, London

Honoured by the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (HRSA)

1987

Order of the Southern Cross Award Brazil

1989

Barbican Art Gallery, London, showed his major works from the 60s

1991

Became Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art Convocation, London, England

2014

Died

Public Collections
Arts Council of England
British Council
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Fitzwilliam Gallery, Cambridge
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Royal Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Tate Britain, London
Tate Modern, London
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Victoria and Albert Museum
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Museum of Modern Art, New York Metropolitan Museum, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Art, San Francisco
Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas