Neil Murison, RWA

Neil Murison was a student at the West of England College of Art from 1946 to 1951. He received his Diploma in Design and Painting in 1950 and his Art Teachers Diploma in 1951. He went on to teach at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital School for nine years and then became a lecturer at the West of England College of Art in 1961 retiring in 1987 as Head of Foundation Studies at Bower Ashton. He has exhibited extensively and has had forty solo shows since 1963. Innocent Fine Art, Bristol, in 1998 and 1999, Arnolfini Gallery in 1965, Bruton Street Gallery, London in 1999 are just some of the key venues. His paintings are in the collections of the Bank of America in London and Amsterdam, Merchant Bank of Scotland, Government of Portugal, Oxford University, the Contemporary Art Society of Wales, Bath University and other notable corporate institutions. When considering the influences on his work he states: ‘My work is strongly based in nature. I keep sketchbooks and take endless photographs on my travels and am never short of source material. Over the years the sunlight and colour of the tropics has been stimulating and the rain forest has become a recurring theme for the work. Each trip prompts its own response and becomes responsible for a series of paintings which reflect the memory of that experience. Work based around the life figure is also an important part of the work’.