David Richard Gregson was a painter and teacher. He was born in Perth in 1934 and studied at Perth Technical College from 1951-1954. He and Judith Holmes were the first two students to undertake a fourth year to add a painting diploma to their commercial art qualification. Gregson then studied at the _cole Nationale Sup_rieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris for the academic year 1954-5. “He recalls with some amusement how naive he was at the time when he 'just turned up’ at the Ecole with his folio unaware that European art schools began at a different time of the year. Neither did he think to write in advance about his intention to study there; intending students usually had to sit for an entrance exam. Luckily for Gregson, his folio was strong, and the French instructors appeared to have found his disregard for official procedures amusing.”
After his return to Perth in 1956, Gregson spent twenty years painting murals in the city’s coffee shops, restaurants, and hospitals. During the 1960s, he designed and constructed sets for the Guild of Undergraduates and Patch Theatres in Perth, and the Darlington Theatre Players. He also taught part-time in the Art Department at Perth Technical College, at the Fremantle Technical College, and then later at Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) and Claremont School of Art. Gregson took part in a number of solo and group exhibitions, was the recipient of many awards, and his work is held in numerous public, private and corporate collections. He won the Parmelia Portrait Prize in 1976.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
