Sonia Lawson R.A.
1950-1969
Graduate and postgraduate studies at Royal College of Art. Travelling scholarship to France.
One of four young artists selected for John Schlesinger’s BBC TV Monitor documentary “Private View”.
Solo Exhibitions
1960  Zwemmer Gallery, London 1963   New Arts Centre, London 1964   Queens Square Gallery, Leeds 1967   Trafford Gallery, London
1955- 1960
1960
Selected Exhibitions
1960  London Group. 1960  Royal Academy of Arts,London.          Royal Watercolour Society 1962  Cheltenham Art Gallery:          Six Young Painters 1963  Liverpool, John Moores 1964  Stratford-upon-Avon,          Shakespeare Festival          Leeds City Art Gallery:          “Round About London Galleries”
Biography
1970-1985
1982
Elected Royal Academician
1984
Elected to Royal Watercolour Society. Eastern Arts Drawing Prize. Rowney Drawing Prize. Commission— Imperial War Museum to record British Army of the Rhine  exercise “Operation Lionheart” Wesphalia.Germany.
“Homage to my Friends” (from Giotto to Janis Joplin),  Billingham and Middlesbrough Central Library, Bradford Open University, Milton Keynes Darlington Art Gallery Harrogate Art Gallery Northern Artists’ Gallery, Harrogate “Shrines of Life”- retrospective touring to Central Art Gallery, Milton Keynes Mappin Gallery, Sheffield Leicester Polytechnic Cartwright Hall, Bradford Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (organiser Edna Read) West Yorkshire Arts Association, Kirklees
1973
1977
1979
1980
1982- 1983
1984
“Midnight Muse”, Manchester City Art Gallery Cartwright Hall, Bradford Boundary Gallery, London University of Birmingham Boundary Gallery, London Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax Retrospective (30 years)
1986-1996
1987
1989
1994
London, Trafford Gallery London, Royal Academy Jubilee: 25 Years of British Art Milton Keynes, Cranfield College. “Fragments Against Ruin”,Arts Council “The Subjective Eye”, Midland Group Arts Council London, Moira Kelly Fine Art London and Edinburgh, Fruit Market Hayward Annual. British Drawing (Eastern Arts/Tolly Cobbold 55-86  Touring Exhibition) New York, Britain Salutes New York.“8 in the 80s” Moira Kelly Fine Art.  Green St. SoHo First Prize “Drawing for All”   Gainsborough House, Eastern Arts Touring 1985  “Critics Choice”, Leeds City Art Gallery Bradford Central Library: “Collectors Choice”, London Group, R.C.A. Gallery Sheffield, Graves. “Frail Peace” Personal Visions on War London: Arthur Young Industrial Sponsors Exhibition
1970
1977
1978
1981- 1982
1981- 1983
1982
1982- 1983
1983
1984
1985
Man and Wife C.1993. Charcoal and Watercolour on paper. Horseman in Snow Flurry. Oil on Canvas. C.1978. Collection Open Universtiy A Spring Journey through Holy Week. 1959. Collection Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust Sonia Lawson in her studio in the 1980's
1997-Present
 Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Shire Hall, Stafford. Royal West of England Academy.  Bristol. Retrospective Exhibition. Boundary Gallery. London Carlow Arts Festival. Eire. Vertigo Gallery. London Boundary Gallery. London University of Birmingham Boundary Gallery. London Aylesbury Museum & Gallery. Points of Departure Retrospective Wakefield City Art Gallery, West Yorkshire. Solo Exhibition Mercer Art Gallery: Paintings, Passions and Alarms. Retrospective
1998
1995
1996
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2008
2000
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
Cover illustration. Women’s Lives into Print. Theory, Practise and Writing of Feminist Auto/Biography. Macmillan Press. Edited by Pauline Polkey          Cover illustration. Ways of Returning. poems by Linda Saunders 2004 Arrowhead Honorary Royal West of England Academician Open University Lecture. Points of Departure
Lorne Scholarship. London University. Commissioned by Archbishop of Canterbury. Painting for Pope in celebration of ecumenical accord. Eastern Arts Drawing Prize. Commission— Book illustrations to accompany Poems by James Kirkup, ‘Look at it this way’.  Rockingham Press. Commission— University of Birmingham 2 Works: Guardian I & II Commission—Drawings published in conjunction with Fay Weldon short story, ‘New Years Eve’. Clarion Publishing.
B.A.O.R. Exercises: 'Lionheart' Sept 1984  Westphalia.  from sketchbook Heads. Cement Fondu  c.1960 Lazurus.  1980. Oil on Canvas.  152cm x 184cm B.A.O.R. Exercises : Lionheart  Sept 1984. Westphalia. from sketchbook 'Transport Workshop' Pilgrimage to the Ridings, Homage to my Family. Oil on Canvas 1982  153cmx 122cm
1986- 1987
1989
1990
1993
1994
1995
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
Leicestershire Invited Artists Gainsborough House.“Drawing For All’ Eastern Arts Touring Leeds Polytechnic:“New Art in Yorkshire” London SW7. Royal College of Art.‘Exhibition Road’ Over 80 eminent painters who studied at the college celebrating the RCA’s 150th anniversary Edinburgh, Kingfisher Gallery John Moores, Liverpool Gallerie Zur Alten Deutschen Schule,Thun, Switzerland Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Connaught Brown, London.W1 Lamont Gallery, London. E2 Mercury Gallery, London. W1 Royal Watercolour Society, London.
1986
1987
1988
1988
1991- 1992
1993- 1999
1995- 1998
1993- 1999
1993
1993- 1995
1992
1999
2004
2005
2008
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
1996- 1999
1997
2001
2004- 2005
Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Lamont Gallery, London. E2 Royal Watercolour Society, London. Discerning Eye.Mall Galleries, London. Nottingham University “ Representing Lives” Featured artist RWS London:Bankside Visual Wit. Royal Academy, London One Hundred Years: One hundred Works RWA 18th Sept- 28th October 2013 Mercer Art Gallery Harrogate Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney 12 April - 12 October 2014 Only Connect: Mixed Exhibition Royal Academy. London [LINK] Frink-Blow-Lawson Women of Vision  RWA 16 Dec 2017 - 11 March 2018. [LINK]
2001
Augustin Landing in England. Watercolour 1989 Lambeth Palace Commission presented to the Pope.  102cm x 91cm Guardian I  Oil on Canvas 1994. Birminham University Commission. 152x124cm Guardian II  Oil on Canvas 1994. Birminham University Commission. 152x124cm
Annually Exhibiting Royal Academy of Arts, London. Royal Watercolour Society, London. Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Selected Arts Fairs.
Stratford Upon Avon. 2 paintings commissioned by Richard Buckle to mark the 4th centenary of Shakespeare’s birth.
2013
2014
2015- 2016
Sonia Lawson was born in Wensleydale into a family of artists. Her father Fred Lawson and her mother Muriel Metcalfe were both artists. Many like minded, creative people would journey to meet them in their remote cottage in the village of Castle Bolton. Such visitors included J.B Priestly, James Kirkup, Jacob Kramer and Philip Naviasky. Sonia studied at the Royal College of Art and later became visiting tutor to the Royal Academy Schools for many years. She was elected to the Royal Academy in 1982.
“She once observed of herself that ‘I am in painting like a fisherman is part of the sea’, paint being the means by which to land her ‘catch’ of imagery, which lives in the element in which it is discovered and is brought out with all the attendant physical risks that implies. It is not a way of working likely to endear yourself to critics or dealers who tend to want to know what to expect next, as Lawson has found out, but it does make for the most exhilarating kind of painting imaginable.”
Night Reading
Night reading series 1980s-2010  Watercolour.
Quotation from ‘Sonia Lawson: Passions and Alarms’ Nicholas Usherwood. published 2015
RA
Further Links
Atlantic Watch 1992, oil on canvas,  48 x 48 cm
Figure at the Prow 1993 mixed media on paper, 50 x 42 cm
Online Articles:
2017
2017- 2018
Sonia Lawson R.A.
1950-1969
Graduate and postgraduate studies at Royal College of Art. Travelling scholarship to France.
One of four young artists selected for John Schlesinger’s BBC TV Monitor documentary “Private View”.
Solo Exhibitions
1960  Zwemmer Gallery, London 1963   New Arts Centre, London 1964   Queens Square Gallery, Leeds 1967   Trafford Gallery, London
1955- 1960
1960
Selected Exhibitions
1960  London Group. 1960  Royal Academy of Arts,London.          Royal Watercolour Society 1962  Cheltenham Art Gallery:          Six Young Painters 1963  Liverpool, John Moores 1964  Stratford-upon-Avon,          Shakespeare Festival          Leeds City Art Gallery:          “Round About London Galleries”
Biography
1970-1985
1982
Elected Royal Academician
1984
Elected to Royal Watercolour Society. Eastern Arts Drawing Prize. Rowney Drawing Prize. Commission— Imperial War Museum to record British Army of the Rhine  exercise “Operation Lionheart” Wesphalia.Germany.
“Homage to my Friends” (from Giotto to Janis Joplin),  Billingham and Middlesbrough Central Library, Bradford Open University, Milton Keynes Darlington Art Gallery Harrogate Art Gallery Northern Artists’ Gallery, Harrogate “Shrines of Life”- retrospective touring to Central Art Gallery, Milton Keynes Mappin Gallery, Sheffield Leicester Polytechnic Cartwright Hall, Bradford Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (organiser Edna Read) West Yorkshire Arts Association, Kirklees
1973
1977
1979
1980
1982- 1983
1984
“Midnight Muse”, Manchester City Art Gallery Cartwright Hall, Bradford Boundary Gallery, London University of Birmingham Boundary Gallery, London Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax Retrospective (30 years)
1986-1996
1987
1989
1994
London, Trafford Gallery London, Royal Academy Jubilee: 25 Years of British Art Milton Keynes, Cranfield College. “Fragments Against Ruin”,Arts Council “The Subjective Eye”, Midland Group Arts Council London, Moira Kelly Fine Art London and Edinburgh, Fruit Market Hayward Annual. British Drawing (Eastern Arts/Tolly Cobbold 55-86  Touring Exhibition) New York, Britain Salutes New York.“8 in the 80s” Moira Kelly Fine Art.  Green St. SoHo First Prize “Drawing for All”   Gainsborough House, Eastern Arts Touring 1985  “Critics Choice”, Leeds City Art Gallery Bradford Central Library: “Collectors Choice”, London Group, R.C.A. Gallery Sheffield, Graves. “Frail Peace” Personal Visions on War London: Arthur Young Industrial Sponsors Exhibition
1970
1977
1978
1981- 1982
1981- 1983
1982
1982- 1983
1983
1984
1985
Man and Wife C.1993. Charcoal and Watercolour on paper. Horseman in Snow Flurry. Oil on Canvas. C.1978. Collection Open Universtiy A Spring Journey through Holy Week. 1959. Collection Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust Sonia Lawson in her studio in the 1980's
1997-Present
 Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Shire Hall, Stafford. Royal West of England Academy.  Bristol. Retrospective Exhibition. Boundary Gallery. London Carlow Arts Festival. Eire. Vertigo Gallery. London Boundary Gallery. London University of Birmingham Boundary Gallery. London Aylesbury Museum & Gallery. Points of Departure Retrospective Wakefield City Art Gallery, West Yorkshire. Solo Exhibition Mercer Art Gallery: Paintings, Passions and Alarms. Retrospective
1998
1995
1996
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2008
2000
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
Cover illustration. Women’s Lives into Print. Theory, Practise and Writing of Feminist Auto/Biography. Macmillan Press. Edited by Pauline Polkey          Cover illustration. Ways of Returning. poems by Linda Saunders 2004 Arrowhead Honorary Royal West of England Academician Open University Lecture. Points of Departure
Lorne Scholarship. London University. Commissioned by Archbishop of Canterbury. Painting for Pope in celebration of ecumenical accord. Eastern Arts Drawing Prize. Commission— Book illustrations to accompany Poems by James Kirkup, ‘Look at it this way’.  Rockingham Press. Commission— University of Birmingham 2 Works: Guardian I & II Commission—Drawings published in conjunction with Fay Weldon short story, ‘New Years Eve’. Clarion Publishing.
B.A.O.R. Exercises: 'Lionheart' Sept 1984  Westphalia.  from sketchbook Heads. Cement Fondu  c.1960 Lazurus.  1980. Oil on Canvas.  152cm x 184cm B.A.O.R. Exercises : Lionheart  Sept 1984. Westphalia. from sketchbook 'Transport Workshop' Pilgrimage to the Ridings, Homage to my Family. Oil on Canvas 1982  153cmx 122cm
1986- 1987
1989
1990
1993
1994
1995
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
Leicestershire Invited Artists Gainsborough House.“Drawing For All’ Eastern Arts Touring Leeds Polytechnic:“New Art in Yorkshire” London SW7. Royal College of Art.‘Exhibition Road’ Over 80 eminent painters who studied at the college celebrating the RCA’s 150th anniversary Edinburgh, Kingfisher Gallery John Moores, Liverpool Gallerie Zur Alten Deutschen Schule,Thun, Switzerland Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Connaught Brown, London.W1 Lamont Gallery, London. E2 Mercury Gallery, London. W1 Royal Watercolour Society, London.
1986
1987
1988
1988
1991- 1992
1993- 1999
1995- 1998
1993- 1999
1993
1993- 1995
1992
1999
2004
2005
2008
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
Biography
1996- 1999
1997
2001
2004- 2005
Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Lamont Gallery, London. E2 Royal Watercolour Society, London. Discerning Eye.Mall Galleries, London. Nottingham University “ Representing Lives” Featured artist RWS London:Bankside Visual Wit. Royal Academy, London One Hundred Years: One hundred Works RWA 18th Sept- 28th October 2013 Mercer Art Gallery Harrogate Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney 12 April - 12 October 2014 Only Connect: Mixed Exhibition Royal Academy. London.  [LINK} Women of Vision  RWA. Bristol 16 Dec 2017 - 11 March 2018. [LINK]
2001
Augustin Landing in England. Watercolour 1989 Lambeth Palace Commission presented to the Pope.  102cm x 91cm Guardian I  Oil on Canvas 1994. Birminham University Commission. 152x124cm Guardian II  Oil on Canvas 1994. Birminham University Commission. 152x124cm
Annually Exhibiting Royal Academy of Arts, London. Royal Watercolour Society, London. Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Selected Arts Fairs.
Stratford Upon Avon. 2 paintings commissioned by Richard Buckle to mark the 4th centenary of Shakespeare’s birth.
2013
2014
2015- 2016
Sonia Lawson was born in Wensleydale into a family of artists. Her father Fred Lawson and her mother Muriel Metcalfe were both artists. Many like minded, creative people would journey to meet them in their remote cottage in the village of Castle Bolton. Such visitors included J.B Priestly, James Kirkup, Jacob Kramer and Philip Naviasky. Sonia studied at the Royal College of Art and later became visiting tutor to the Royal Academy Schools for many years. She was elected to the Royal Academy in 1982.
“She once observed of herself that ‘I am in painting like a fisherman is part of the sea’, paint being the means by which to land her ‘catch’ of imagery, which lives in the element in which it is discovered and is brought out with all the attendant physical risks that implies. It is not a way of working likely to endear yourself to critics or dealers who tend to want to know what to expect next, as Lawson has found out, but it does make for the most exhilarating kind of painting imaginable.”
Quotation from ‘Sonia Lawson: Passions and Alarms’ Nicholas Usherwood. published 2015
RA
Further Links
Atlantic Watch 1992, oil on canvas,  48 x 48 cm
Figure at the Prow 1993 mixed media on paper, 50 x 42 cm
Online Articles:
Night Reading
Night reading series 1980s-2010  Watercolour.
2017
2017- 2018
Boundary Gallery, London. NW8 Lamont Gallery, London. E2 Royal Watercolour Society, London. Discerning Eye.Mall Galleries, London. Nottingham University “ Representing Lives” Featured artist RWS London:Bankside Visual Wit. Royal Academy, London One Hundred Years: One hundred Works RWA 18th Sept- 28th October 2013 Mercer Art Gallery Harrogate Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney 12 April - 12 October 2014 Only Connect: Mixed Exhibition Royal Academy. London.  [LINK} Women of Vision  RWA. Bristol 16 Dec 2017 - 11 March 2018. [LINK]