RSA David Michie Travel Award: Deadline: Sunday 24 March 2024, 5pm

• Entrants must be painters.

• Entrants must either be undergraduates graduating in summer 2024 or currently studying at postgraduate level at one of the following Scottish art schools: Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art, Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, and University of the Highlands & Islands.

How to apply

Application deadline has passed for 2024. Please check back in Spring 2025 for the next round of applications. 

We are pleased to announce Calder Mackay, graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art, is this year's winner. Calder will travel to Budapest, Hungary to create series of paintings, focusing on how men construct their sense of community in Budapest as compared to Scotland. 

David Alan Redpath Michie OBE RSA (1928 – 2015) was born at Saint-Raphaël, France. His father, James Michie, was an architect and painter and his mother was the celebrated artist Anne Redpath OBE RSA.

Michie’s early years were spent living in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and the vibrant colour schemes of the Côte d’Azur would later infuse his work. In 1934, his family settled in the Scottish Borders. In 1946, he enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art where he was taught by William Gillies RSA. In 1953, after a period of National Service, he received a travelling scholarship to Italy, accompanied by his friend, the painter John Houston. They toured the Renaissance sites of Tuscany, and stayed in the hilltop towns of Anticoli Corrado and Orvieto in Umbria. 

Michie taught widely, lecturing at James Clarke’s School, Edinburgh, and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. He was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Belgrade and the University of California. He returned to Edinburgh College of Art to teach painting during the 1960s and 1970s, and was Vice Principal there from 1974 to 1977. 

Banner image: Emma Hall, Dahlia Sisters (detail), 2022, oil on canvas