Dunedin, New Zealand

Ewan McDougall (b. Wellington 1948) was educated at Waitaki Boys High School and graduated from Otago University B.A. [Hons.] Political Studies in 1971.

He has diverse experience, has worked as a freezing worker, university tutor and lecturer, iron-ore mine labourer, oil-rig worker and union delegate and travelled widely in the 1980s.

Since he began painting in 1989, McDougall has had over thirty five solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows including exhibitions in the Manawatu Public Art Gallery and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and he is represented in numerous private and public collections.

Ewan McDougall is a five-time finalist in the Sir James Wallace Art Awards and Wallace/Visa Art Awards [Auckland] and is a past prize winner in the Cleveland Art Awards [Dunedin].


“…Spaced out, out of it and out of whack McDougall’s cracked actors appear as if they’ve become infected by the influence of some mad rainbow-lit sky, some hallucinogenic holocaust.

While the colour and sweetness in McDougall’s painting rarely makes for pretty pictures and often leads to queasy experiences in terms of direct emotional communication of uncomfortable corners of the human condition, he’s on to something.

There’s a joy in the liberation painting has afforded him and a constant presence of a cheeky irony-laden humour.
Within New Zealand Art practice Ewan McDougall is every bit the outsider. His self conscious concerns, expressive brush-stokes and candy colours isolate him straight away.

McDougall is likely now to become increasingly recognised as belonging in the company of other outstanding Outsider artists internationally..."

Mark Amery Flashback! Catalogue Essay CoCA Exhibition [December 2000 – February 2001 ]