Biography

Leo McDowell R.I

An artist in mixed media, his early moorland landscapes reflecting his Yorkshire background. After reading Modern Languages at Manchester and Cambridge Universities and the History of Art at Innsbruck University, McDowell spent eight years teaching and working with archaeological research teams in North Africa, Turkey, Cyprus and Jordan. He painted extensively during this period, his work being influenced by the Mediterranean landscape, and by early Greek and Byzantine art. Leo McDowell was elected a member of RI in 1985 and joined its Council in 1991. He won the Winsor and Newton RI Award in 1990 and the Blackstone Gallery Award in 1992. McDowell works from abstract, representational and frequently domestic elements and his paintings are rich in colour and texture, with images of antiquity juxtaposed and interwoven with interiors, seascapes, Mediterranean scenes and figurative images. He has exhibited extensively both in the UK and abroad.