Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


David Michie artist

David Alan Redpath Michie was born on 30 November 1928 in Saint-Raphaël, France, son of a Scottish artist and an architect. He returned to Scotland in 1934 with his family, after the industrialist for whom the father worked lost his fortune. Michie was educated in Scotland and soon established himself as a art teacher and an academic painter, known for his endearing depictions of the commonplace subjects. As an educator, he latterly became Head of School of Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art.

Born: 1928 Saint-Raphaël, Var, France

Died: 2015 Edinburgh, Scotland

Year of Migration to the UK: 1934

Other name/s: David Michie OBE


Biography

Painter and educator David Alan Redpath Michie was born on 30 November 1928 in Saint-Raphaël, France. His Scottish mother was the renowned painter, Anne Redpath, and his father, James Michie, worked as a private architect for the American industrialist, Charles Thompson. Michie’s older brother was the sculptor Alastair Michie. The children spent their early childhood along the Mediterranean coast and most of the time the family lived on a boathouse moored next to Thompson’s villa, Chateau Gloria. However, Thompson lost his fortune with the Great Depression and the Michie family decide to return to Scotland in 1934, settling in Hawick in the Scottish Borders. The contrast between these two environments—a luminous southern coastline and the more subdued Scottish landscape—would later shape his approach to colour, mood, and subject matter. In 1946, he enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art, where he studied under William Gillies and forged lasting friendships, notably with fellow student, John Houston. His studies were briefly interrupted by National Service in the Royal Army Service Corps between 1947 and 1949. Upon returning, Michie resumed his training and completed his degree in 1953. That same year, Michie was awarded the Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship, enabling a formative trip to Italy with Houston. The pair visited major Renaissance sites and spent extended periods in Anticoli Corrado and Tuscany. The experience left a lasting imprint on Michie’s developing artistic sensibility.

Rather than focusing on monumental narratives or symbolic gestures, Michie found inspiration in the everyday. His compositions often depict gardens, cafés, animals, and ordinary people, rendered with an unassuming intensity. Rather than seeking out dramatic or staged scenes, he drew artistic energy from the small, unscripted moments of daily life, frequently portraying figures he encountered during his travels or observed in ordinary public settings. Through watercolour and oil, he developed a vibrant palette that lifted his subjects out of the mundane, offering them a fresh, almost enchanted significance. He deliberately avoided heavy symbolism or overt messages, preferring to draw attention to fleeting details - a dragonfly, a figure in motion, a burst of colour. His use of bold, contrasting tones and fluid outlines draws on the influence of Henri Matisse, Post-Impressionist traditions and the emergence of Fauvism, while his sketch-like technique lends the work an immediacy mirroring his habitual practice of keeping sketchbooks, which he began as a student and maintained throughout his life. Music was a frequent metaphor in his description of painting. He often likened his colour choices to musical notes, constructing rhythm and harmony through hues like greens, violets, ochres, and pinks. This compositional sensibility brought a lyrical quality to his canvases. The effect is often one of heightened realism: familiar scenes made strange, or moments of quiet rendered with theatrical vividness. The interplay between structure and spontaneity gives his work a sense of internal logic, grounded in observation yet open to improvisation.

Throughout his career, Michie exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions, including at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Scottish Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts in London, and Gillian Raffles' Mercury Gallery. His work has also featured posthumously in a number of exhibitions in Scotland. In 2017, the Scottish Gallery held a memorial show that brought together much of his oeuvre and celebrated his vibrant canvases, while also acknowledging that his inherently modest nature had, at times, made him hesitant to exhibit during his lifetime. In 2019, his works were included in an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, which celebrated the contributions of past members.

Alongside his studio practice, Michie played a prominent role in Scottish art education. After initially training as a teacher and lecturing at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, in 1961, he joined the teaching staff at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), where he was appointed Deputy Head of Drawing and Painting in 1968. He later served as Vice-Principal (1974–77) and held the post of Head of School of Drawing and Painting from 1982 to 1990. His academic influence extended internationally through visiting professorships at the Academy of Fine Art in Belgrade, Serbia in 1979 and the University of California, USA in 1991. In addition to his many awards and memberships (OBE, RSA, PSSA, FRSA and RGI), Miche was also a passionate gardener and this dedication to the natural world in also visible in many of his canvases. David Michie died in Edinburgh, Scotland on 24 August 2015. His work is held in numerous public collections in the UK, including Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums; Art in Healthcare collection; Edinburgh College of Art; Glasgow Museums; National Galleries of Scotland; The Royal Collection; Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, Royal West of England Academy (RWA), and Tate.

Related books

  • Robin McClure, Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat. (Edinburgh: the Scottish Gallery, 2017)
  • David Michie Paintings 6 - 29 October 2003 (Exhibition catalogue) (Edinburgh, The Scottish Gallery, 2003)
  • The Scottish Gallery, 1994
  • The Scottish Gallery 1998

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen (lecturer)
  • Officer of the Order of the British Empire (member)
  • Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (member )
  • Royal Scottish Academy (member )
  • Royal Society of Arts (fellow)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • The Early Years (solo exhibition), The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2023)
  • David Michie: A Retrospective Exhibition (solo exhibition), Glasgow Art Club, Glasgow (2018)
  • Memorial Exhibition (Solo exhibition), The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2017)
  • The David Michie Gift (solo exhibition), Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2016-17)
  • David Michie (solo exhibition), Scott Gallery, Howick, Scotland (2009)
  • David Michie (solo exhibition), Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (1980, 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2008)
  • David Michie (solo exhibition), Kasteel De Hooge Vuursche Baarn and Mia Joosten Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1991)
  • David Michie (solo exhibition), Loomshop Gallery, Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland (1981 and 1987)
  • David Michie (solo exhibition), Mercury Gallery, London (1966, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1980, 1994, 1992, 1996 and 1999)
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Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [David Michie]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [David Michie] in the Ben Uri Library