Ewan McDougall was born in Wellington, New Zealand. His family later moved to Oamaru where he was educated at Waitaki Boys High School and taught painting by North Otago regionalist painter, Colin Wheeler. Ewan attended Otago University while also working in freezing works, surfing and drumming in the seminal Dunedin Rock bands Pussyfoot and Noah. He gained an Honours Degree in Political Studies in 1971. He worked at Otago University as a junior lecturer and tutor before leaving to travel overseas. Over the ensuing decade Ewan partied hard and traveled extensively through Asia to Europe and the UK, then on to the USA and Mexico where he surfed Baja California beaches. He worked in iron-ore mining in the North Western Australian desert, in pubs in London, on oilrigs in the Arctic circle and in restaurants in Colorado. In 1983 he returned to Perth, Western Australia, and met and married his wife the playwright Sarah McDougall. They then returned to New Zealand. In 1988 he began to paint again. Subsequently, over twenty years, he has ‘developed a powerfully vibrant signature style. His witty, outrageous works are inhabited by a wealth of personal references to his often volatile life’ [Mark Amery].
McDougall has had over fifty solo exhibitions in some prominent New Zealand dealer galleries and innumerable group exhibitions as well as exhibiting internationally. In 1994 he exhibited in two group exhibitions in Penzance and St Just in Cornwall, UK. In 2003 Ewan showed in Southern Heat in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. He exhibited in the Sydney Art Show with Gallery 2021 in 2004. McDougall exhibited in London in 2005 with the prestigious West End gallery. The Rebecca Hossack Gallery as well as participating in ‘Art London-the Chelsea Art Show’, The London Art Fair and the London Raw Arts Festival. Later the same year he exhibited with three other international painters at Arte Immagini Gallery in Cremona City, Italy. In 2006 he showed in the Spanish Raw Arts Festival in Color Elefante Gallery, Valencia, Spain. And in July, 2008, ‘Hard out’ Ewan’s twenty-year retrospective exhibition opened prior to touring South Island galleries.
The painter is a nine-time finalist in the Sir James Wallace Art Awards, a finalist in the Norsewear Art Awards and a prize-winner in the Mainland and Cleveland Awards. He was a finalist in the Park Lane Art Awards in 2006 and in 2007 he was a finalist in the CoCA/Anthony Harper Art Awards in Christchurch. He was a finalist also in The New Zealand Portrait Gallery /Adam Portraiture Awards in 2006 and 2008. His portraits were selected for the touring exhibitions on both occasions. He was also a finalist in the 2009 Waikato Society of the Arts Painting Awards.
He has works in a number of Public Collections including: The Forrester Gallery, The Aigantighe Gallery, The University of Otago Auckland Centre Collection, The Dunedin Public Hospital Collection and The Christchurch Centre of Contemporary Art Collection.
Artist Statement:
I am an Expressionist painter. I rarely plan a painting or do preparatory drawing. I commence the work with a quick wash of strong, primary colour and then begin to hurriedly paint figures-people, animals and hybrid creatures. I add crude marks for volcanoes, hills, sea, buildings, boats, clouds, sun and moon, working with vibrant impasto. The painting forms, and informs me as to what it is. The last stroke is always the title. Above all I prize spontaneity, colour and a good dose of irony. I love being a painter.