Colin Davidson RUA
Colin Davidson is a contemporary artist, living and working near Belfast, Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster in 1991 with a First Class Honours Degree in Design and founded his own design company before deciding, at the turn of the millennium, to become a full–time artist. Since then, his works have been exhibited extensively worldwide. His subjects have developed from the urban cityscape, through sophisticated multi–layered paintings of city window reflections, to a current focus on grand scale portraits which have won widespread recognition and many international awards. As well as numerous commissions, Colin’s portrait sitters have included Brian Friel, Michael Longley, Simon Callow, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Duke Special, Ciaran Hinds, Paul Brady, Adrian Dunbar, Barry Douglas, Gary Lightbody, Marketa Irglova, Glen Hansard, Lisa Hannigan, Mark Knopfler and Bronagh Gallagher – prominent figures who have each, in their own way, shaped life and art over three decades. His painting of Seamus Heaney was the last portrait for which Heaney sat. Colin’s work is in public and corporate collections across Ireland and beyond including the Arts Council for Northern Ireland, the BBC, the National Self–Portrait Collection of Ireland (Limerick), Queen’s University Belfast, the Ulster Museum (Belfast), Standard Life (London), the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin), the Standard Chartered Bank of Asia and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington DC). A selection of Colin’s portraits are currently on display at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, where he personally presented his work to HM The Queen and the President of Ireland during the Royal Visit to Northern Ireland in 2012. An Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy since 2006, Colin has won the RUA Gold Medal three times and served as President of the Royal Ulster Academy between 2012 and 2015.