ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

1927 Born Adelaide, South Australia, 25 December.

1939 Attended Thebarton Technical High School, Adelaide.

1943 Commenced landscape painting in spare time.

1944-47 Studied engineering and architecture at the South Australian School of Mines (now University of South Australia). Painted at Hahndorf each weekend, met Hans Heysen and undertook several painting trips to the Flinders Ranges.

1948-49 Worked in New Guinea for an oil company. Read Goethe and corresponded with Hans Heysen. Returned to Australia late 1949 and enrolled at the Melbourne National Gallery Art School.

1950 Commenced four years full-time painting course at National Gallery School, Melbourne. Moved into Coach House studio at rear 43 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne.

1953 Moved to a large industrial studio, rear 1A Gordon Grove, Malvern, Melbourne. Completed Gallery School Course. Awarded various prizes, including Hugh Ramsay Portrait Prize.

1954 Began part-time work with a firm of mining consultants in Melbourne, and through this work made his first contact with the more remote outback areas. Exhibited as ‘Group Four’ at Victorian Artists’ Society, with Clifton Pugh, Don Laycock and John Howley.

1955 Lived in Melbourne. Made contact with Sydney-based painters, Eric Smith, John Olsen, John Passmore and Bill Rose; and in South Australia with Stanislaus Rapotec.

1956 Work included in Pacific Loan Exhibition, San Francisco. Taught for six months at St Peter’s College, Adelaide.

1957 Returned to Melbourne. Daryl Lindsay commissioned large Aboriginal Camp mural for Australian National University, Canberra. Golgotha won a prize in the Blake competition. Awarded Italian Government - Flotto Lauro-Dante Alighieri Scholarship to study in Rome. Left for Rome, December, 1957.

1958 Lived in Rome and travelled to Florence and Arezzo.

1959 ‘Work from Rome’ shown at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. Visited Venice, Trieste, Split and Dubrovnik. Left Rome for Paris and London in October.

1960 Lived and worked in London. Visited Venice, Florence and Rome and left Naples for Australia. Returned to Adelaide for six months - worked in old Will Ashton studio.

1961 Returned to London via Frankfurt and Paris in January. Visited Russia by car, via Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, returning via Finland and Denmark. The Rainbow Serpent, Sungazer II and Anima Mundi included in ‘Recent Australian Painting’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Represented Australia with Charles Blackman and Brett Whiteley at Paris Biennale des Jeunes. Studio in Ladbroke Grove with Whiteley and Michael Johnson; travelled to Holland with Whiteley and visited the Stedelijk Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

1962 Visited New York with Bryan Robertson and met a number of the New York painters; visited Philadelphia and Provincetown, Cape Cod. First one-man exhibition in London at Matthieson Gallery. Went to Venice, Bulgaria and Istanbul by train.

1963 Awarded Honorable mention: Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil.

1965 Worked on mining paintings in Adelaide. Travelled to Papeete and Mexico with several weeks in the Yucatan. April-May: visited New York and then returned to London.

1966 Living in London. Major retrospective exhibition at Adelaide Festival of Arts. The exhibition held at the Art Gallery of South Australia showed over seventy works dating from 1951 to 1966. Travelled to New York, Chicago, Saskatchewan, Arctic Circle, Buffalo, Ottawa.

1970 Left England. Made contact again with Australian landscape and visited Western Australia on survey work. Chance discovery of photograph of mining disaster at Marvel Loch. Moved to Bribie Island, Queensland. Met Ian Fairweather

1971 Returned to England to work for six weeks with the printer, Chris Prater, on Omens suite of screenprints. Living in Adelaide.

1972 Festival exhibition at Lidums Gallery, Adelaide, March. Returned to live on Bribie Island. Commencement of Big Pacific Eye imagery. Purchased ‘Owl Creek’ Farm, Glasshouse Mountains, Queensland.

1973 Etching on Bribie Island.

1974 Living on Bribie Island and Etching and working on ‘Owl Creek’ Farm building. Moved to ‘Owl Creek’ Farm.

1975 Spent time in Eungella National Park, Queensland, and commenced Rain Forest pictures.

1976 July-August: Exhibition of ‘Paintings and Drawings from Bribie Island, 1973-1976’, Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide.

1977 Awarded Georges Invitation Art Prize. July: ‘Paintings at Owl Creek’, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney. August: ‘Paintings from Owl Creek’, Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane. Appointed member of Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees. Etching at Griffith University, Queensland Film and Drama Centre workshop.

1978 Further etching periods at Griffith University, Queensland. June: ‘The Complete Graphics: 1964-1978’, at Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane. Visited London and Chris Prater’s Kelpra Editions, travelled around Morocco.

1979 September-October: ‘Moroccan Paintings’, Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane.

1980 The Cage screenprint included in Tate Gallery, London exhibition ‘Images of Ourselves’. July: exhibition at Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney, ‘Paintings from the Glasshouse Mountains’.

1981 Executed several portraits. Completed mural for Supreme Court, Brisbane. Visited London and worked with Chris Prater on screenprints.

1982 Commenced Cain and the Promised Land paintings. Publication of book Lawrence Daws by Neville Weston (A.H. and A.W.Reed). November: exhibition ‘Cain and the Promised Land’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

1984-85 Painted large mural for Performing Arts Complex, Brisbane 1985 Visited India, Kashmir and Ladahk. 1987 May: exhibition ‘The Nude and other Paintings’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane

1989 Painted ‘Stations of the Cross’, St. Stephens Cathedral, Brisbane. Visited UK, Netherlands and Venice. Visited China.

1990 August-September: exhibition ‘Recent Paintings’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

1992 Received honorary doctorate from Griffith University.

1993 August-September: exhibition ‘Recent Paintings’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

1996 July-August: exhibition ‘Interiors/Exteriors Owl Creek’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

1999 August-September: exhibition ‘Recent Paintings’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

2000 Received honorary doctorate from University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. November: Survey exhibition, ‘Lawrence Daws: Asylum in Eden. Thirty years in Queensland’, Brisbane City Gallery.

2001 August-September: 'Survey Exhibition' at Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne.

2002 August-September: exhibition ‘Recent Paintings’ at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane. Invited to Shanghai to participate in 'Shanghai in the Eyes of World Artists'.

2003 Travelled to Iceland. Solo exhibition with Neville Keating Tollemache, London. Visited art musuems in Spain and Holland.

2004 Commenced studies of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia.

2005 June-July: exhibition "Recent Paintings" at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane. Further work on the Fleurieu Peninsula paintings.