Colin Thoms studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1929 until 1933, under of S.J. Peploe, John Duncan, DM Sutherland and William Gillies.
He graduated from the ECA in 1933 and then went for a short time to the Slade in London.
He was awarded two travelling scholarships which allowed him to study in Paris, Florence, Rome, Padua and Venice. And then onto Brussels, Cologne and Munich.
In 1937, he returned to Scotland and took up a teaching post at the Loretto School in Musselburgh. From 1951-1976 he taught full-time at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. He was also President of the Society of Scottish Artist between 1949 and 1951. He was good friends with the painter Anne Redpath.
The war years were served initially with the Royal Artillery. After suffering a severe head wound in an air-raid, he transferred to the Education Corps, serving in Edinburgh, Orkney, Egypt and Palestine, rising from the ranks to Sergeant and Captain.
Later in this career, Thoms was influenced by the work of Kandinsky and Miro, and developed an abstract style of painting. The Miro Retrospective held at the Tate Gallery in 1963 had a dramatic on his work - he moved away from more figurative works to abstract works.
He went on to produced the most witty and inventive abstract paintings, collages and prints. The subjects were often very colourful and depicted an almost poetic dream world influenced by both Klee and Miro.
Thoms first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1928 and continued to exhibit regularly there until his death in 1997.
Thoms was an important influence on several generations of Scottish artists, including Will MacLean, Paul Furneaux, Moira Maitland, Alexander Fraser, Ian McKenzie Smith and Joyce Cairns.
This bold watercolour by Thoms dates to the 1970s. It was lent to an exhibition in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum. The label on the back of the frame states that it was exhibited with the title "Ferocious Night" and was on loan from a Private Collection.
Dimensions: Frame Size is 46 x 60 cm. The image size is 27 x 39 cm.
The work is unsigned by Thoms - but is certainly an exhibited autograph work by him. This watercolour / gouache paintings do not come up on the market often. This 1970s work by him must have been completed just after his retirement from teaching. It is in fine vintage condition and has comes with its original frame - but we had our picture framer remove it and give it a new fresh window mount.
It will cap postage to you at £14.95. Free Delivery in the Edinburgh area.