Fashion Drawing VI

The oldest of the Michie boys Alastair was born in St. Omer, France in 1921 attending French schools until the age of 12. When the family moved back to the Borders he continued his schooling in Hawick. After gaining a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art he followed in his father’s footsteps and studied architecture. While at university he enlisted in the University Air Squadron and at the outbreak of War he travelled to Florida to begin his training. Miraculously Alastair survived the War having served with distinction as a night fighter pilot over German lines. When the War ended he was reluctant to return to another three years of study and decided to apply his talent as a draughtsman to the art of illustration. He becamean extremely successful fashion illustrator and designer, eventually gaining international recognition. It was at this stage that Alastair moved from London to Wareham in Dorset, where he would remain for the rest of his life. In 1963 Alastair and his mother made a trip to the Venice which was to dramatically change his direction as anartist. At the Biennale he saw firsthand the abstract expressionist works brought over from New York. The sheer scale andenergy of Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell were critical in his decision to become a painter and eliciteda desire to paint in a way that the example set by his mother and had not. Alastair met Mark Rothko after his friend John Plumb’s exhibition opening at the Axiom Gallery in London a few years later. It was an encounter that confirmed his belief that abstraction was a vehicle for universal human emotion. Although now into his 40s this experience engendered a drastic change in his artistic direction and triggered a desire to become a painter full time (much to the surprise of his family!). Alastair always distanced himself from his mother’s influence, proclaiming: “my mother’s work did not influence me”. However it is not far fetched to see, Anne Redpath’s feeling for colour and texture is evident in her son’s mature work.