About the artist - Robert Maclaurin

Robert Maclaurin (b. 1961) is a Scottish artist with an international reputation. Predominantly landscape–based, his initial en plein air paintings and drawings lead to major works in the studio, capturing the contrasting environments of the Scottish and Australian Wilderness.

Born in 1961, Robert Maclaurin graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (1983) with a Drawing and Painting BA(Hons) degree and a Post Graduate Diploma with distinction the following year.

After a Royal Scottish Academy travelling Scholarship to Italy in 1984, he won a Turkish Government Scholarship, painting in Istanbul for 15 months. This experience inspired and informed his work for over 15 years with many returns to far Eastern Anatolia. He has been a full time career artist since 1985, continuously exhibiting and winning numerous grants and residencies over the years.

The granting of a Distinguished Talent Visa, in 2001, made Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia his permenant home and studio.

His paintings of mountainous and arid regions have won him critical acclaim and numerous awards and prizes over the years including the prestigious Noble Grossart Scottish Painting Prize in 1998 and the John Farrell Self Portrait Award in 2005.

These include the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Scottish Parliament Collection and the Fleming Wyfold Foundation Collection of Scottish Art in London.

Robert Maclaurin regularly returns to Scotland for solo exhibitions in Edinburgh and London since his move to Australia. He is at present living and working in Scotland for 18 months and has just been awarded Artist in Residency at Ateliers Höherweg, Dusseldorf in Germany.