Title: Hidden Souls
Size: 38cm x 38cm
Medium: Acrylic on Linen

Price: £960

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About the Artist


The work of Ronald Forbes forms a narrative around the way we see and understand the world. It is about illusion, belief and reality – and the fuzzy edges between these.

There have been more than thirty-seven solo exhibitions of his work around the world.

Ronald Forbes is an artist who is primarily a painter, but who has also made films throughout his career.  He was highly engaged in higher art education, closing that part of his career as Head of Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, the University of Dundee.  He has also undertaken many artist-in-residence posts nationally and internationally.  He is an academician of the RSA,an elected member of the RGI and a Professional Member of the Society of Scottish Artists.

There have been solo, group and curated exhibitions of Forbes’s work in Scotland, England, Ireland,USA, Australia, Japan, France and the Netherlands.His paintings are held in a range of public collections in the UK,Ireland, USA, Poland and Australia. He has received many prizes, including the Guthrie Medal from the Royal Scottish Academy, prizes and nominations in various international film festivals and awards from bodies such as the Leverhulme Trust,the Carnegie Trust, the Scottish Arts Council and the Hope-Scott Trust.

Scottish Arts Council Touring Exhibition

Forbes/Robb

1979 Aberdeen Art Gallery

1978 Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh

1978 Collins Gallery, Glasgow

1978 Arts Council Gallery, Belfast

Netherlands Touring Exhibition

British Council/Culturele Raad Limburg

Forbes/Nelson/Shaw

1983 Netherlands and Belgium

Hoensbruck, Roermond, Maastricht and Liege

 “Nature: Only and Idea”

Forbes, Hardy and Jannel

2002 Galerie Trace, Maastricht, Netherlands

“Parallel Paths” Doug Cocker and Ronald Forbes

2006 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018 “Allusions, 111” Fidra Fine Art, Gullane (November 2018)

2017 “Allusions,11”  Tatha Gallery, Newport on Tay

2015 “Allusions” RGI Kelly Gallery, Glasgow

2015 “The Newport Circle,“ Tatha Gallery, Newport on Tay

2015  Invited artist “Realised”, RSA Annual, Edinburgh

2015   The Pentland Gallery inaugural exhibition, Aberdeen

2014 “Lifecycles,” Tatha Gallery, Newport on Tay.

2014 “RSA: Focus on Film” RSA Annual, Edinburgh

2010   Invited artist, “Art and Social Engagement,” RSA Annual, Edinburgh

2001 ”4thAustralian Artist Book Fair, Brisbane

2001 “Four by Four” Artists’ Books at Fine Art Gallery, University of Tasmania

2000 “Spool: An Exhibition of Prints by Scottish Artists” Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, USA

2000  “Scottish Painters at the Fosse Gallery”, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cheltenham

2000 “Expressions: Scottish Art Since 1945, McManus Galleries, Dundee

2000  “Connections 2000”  Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

1999 “Connections” Royal Scottish Academy Festival Exhibition, Edinburgh

1999  “Small Paintings” Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow

1999  “RSA Painter Members”, Albemarle Gallery, London

1999  “Recent Acquisitions”, Perth Art Galleries and Museum, Perth

1999  “France and Six Nations. L’Art Actuel”,. Tokyo, Japan and touring

1999  “Artists 95”, website exhibition organised by Axis

1999   Morrison Portrait Competition   Royal Scottish Academy,  Edinburgh

1998,1999, 2000  Glasgow Group Exhibition (invited artist) Kelly Gallery, Glasgow

1998  Royal Scottish Academy, Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh

1998  Recent acquisitions from the Scottish Arts Council Collection, Smith Stirling Art Gallery, Stirling

1998 Noble-Grossart Painting Competition, Edinburgh and Glasgow

1998  Holland Art Fair, The Hague, Netherlands

1998  “New Works by Members” Festival Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

1998  “Metamorphosis” Seagate Gallery, Dundee

1998  “Absolute Secret” Postcard Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London

1998  "Small Paintings” Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow

1997-1998  “Rastava Sodobne Skotskf Grafike” Exhibition of Scottish Prints, touring museums and galleries in Slovenia

1997 “Reunion” de Keerder Kunstkamer, Cadier en Keer, Netherlands

1997 “Figure This”, McManus Art Galleries, Dundee

1997 “An Alphabet of Artists”, Perth Museum and Art Gallery

1996, 1997, 1998, 1999/2000 Nobel Grossart Painting Competition,  RSA, Edinburgh and Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow

1996 Exhibition of Small Works, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Festival

1996 Dave Thomas project, Expanded Field - 500 Sites, Melbourne, Australia

1996 “Small Works”, Roger Bilcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow

1996 “Postcards”, Roger Bilcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow

1995 Inaugural Exhibition, New Foyer Gallery, University of Abertay, Dundee

1995  “Uprising”, The Meffan Gallery, Forfar

1995  “Contemporary Scottish Art: 15 Years of Collecting”, The McManus Galleries, Dundee

1994 and 1995  “Celtic Connections Exhibition” The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall,

1994 “World SHO and European Artists Exhibition”, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Centre, and Kyobun Civic Gallery, Kawasaki, Japan

1994 “Outpost”, Edinburgh Festival

1994 “Groot in ’T Kleine”, De Keerder Kunstkamer, Limburg, the Netherlands

1994 “Beuys in Scotland”, Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh Festival,

1993-94  “Witnesses of Existence”, Kingston University, England; Demarco Foundation, Edinburgh; Obala Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia

1993  “Alive and Printing”, 21 years of Glasgow Print Studio, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow

1991 “Man in the Universe”, Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh

1991 “International Exhibition”, Central Museum, Ginza, Tokyo

1990 “The Compass Contribution” 21 years of Contemporary Art, Tramway, Glasgow

1990  “RSA Guthrie Award Winners 1920-1990”, The Fine Art Society, Glasgow/Edinburgh

1988 “Works on Paper”, Contemporary Scottish Art Touring Netherlands and Belgium

1988 “The Garden”, Fine Art Society, Glasgow

1987 “Scotch in the Apple” Contemporary Scottish Art, Lincoln Centre, New York

1985 “Unique and Original” Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow

1985 “Exposition International de Peinture”, Paris

1975 “Living Art Exhibition”, Dublin

1975 “Fact and Fantasy”, Scottish Arts Council Tour

1975 “Different Realists”, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh

1974  STV Gateway Exhibition, Edinburgh Festival

1973 and 1984 Glasgow Group Exhibition Invited Artist, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow

1973 and 1974  'Original Print', Edinburgh

1971 '20 x 57' Edinburgh Festival Exhibition

1967-71  'Scottish Young Contemporaries

Exhibited in many Glasgow League of Artists exhibitions 1971– 80

Exhibited in Royal Scottish Academy, Society of Scottish Artists, Royal Glasgow Insititute and Aberdeen Artists annual exhibitions frequently from 1970 - present

Prizes and Awards

2014 Dundee Visual Artists Award Scheme award

2012  Award of Merit for Joking Apart, Lucerne International Film Festival

2009 Publication award, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

2009 Dundee Visual Artists Award Scheme award

2006 Leverhulme Artist in Residence Award at SCRI

2002 Publication award, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

2001 Shortlisted for Rootstein-Hopkins Major Sabbatical Award

1999 Sir William Gillies Bequest Award, Royal Scottish Academy

1996 Highland Society of London Award, Royal Scottish Academy

1994 Commendation, Aberdeen Artists Exhibition

1990 Hope Scott Trust Award

1980 S.A.C. Amsterdam Studio Award

1979 Scottish Arts Council Award for Film-making

1979 R.S.A. Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy

1975 Prize for film, “Between Dreams” in BBC “Scope” Film Competition

1968 Prize in Scottish Young Contemporaries Exhibition

1967 1st prize in first Scottish Young Contemporaries Exhibition

1964-69 Numerous awards and prizes at Edinburgh College of Art