George Elmslie Owen

George Elmslie Owen, RBA, NS (1899-1964)

was a well-known painter working in oils and gouache and he was also a printmaker. He was born in Stirling and was educated at Stirling High School and later at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh 1918-19. Owen studied art at the Edinburgh College of Art under Gerald Moira 1921-23 and he then moved to Paris where he worked and developed his art at L’Académie Moderne under Fernand Leger and Amédée Ozenfant 1923-25. On returning to England he taught art and exhibited at a number of the leading galleries, mainly at the Royal Society of British Artists to which society he was elected a member in 1933. Elmslie Owen also showed at the Royal Academy in 1936, when he was living in Fairhazel Gardens, South Hampstead, NW6, and with the New English Art Club 1933-37, the London Group, the Royal Scottish Academy 1933-34, and the Glasgow Institute 1929-33, where he exhibited paintings and wood engravings. Alongside his work as an artist he also taught at the Westminster School of Art in the 1930s. During World War II he was a Camouflage Officer under the Ministry of Home Security. In 1943 he was recorded as living in a hotel in Surbiton. After a long period of illness, post war he and his wife Margaret settled at ‘Eastcot’ in Partridge Green, West Sussex, and circa 1950 they moved to St Ronan, in Steyning, West Sussex. Owen became a member of the Society of Sussex Painters which had its base in nearby Worthing and in this later period he worked in gouache rather than oils. He also took on the role of part time teacher at Brighton College of Art. (We are grateful in particular to the late Mrs Margaret Owen who kindly provided information to us in regard to her husband’s life and work).

Current Works

George Elmslie Owen – Still Life