John Campbell Mitchell (1862-1922)

John Campbell Mitchell RSA (1862-1922). ARSA 1904, RSA 1919. Mitchell was born in Campbeltown, Argyll. He was a painter in oils and occasionally watercolour. He painted landscapes and marine scenes. Mitchell started life in a lawyers office but at the age of twenty two he abandoned his legal career and and entered Edinburgh College of Art  where he worked in the RSA life class and later in Paris under Benjamin Constant. Two very early works, both scenes from the hunting field, dated 1879 appeared on the market in the1990's. On his return to Scotland from Paris in1890 Mitchell settled in Edinburgh where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1891 he shared the Keith Prize. He first exhibited in the RSA in 1886 and in 1901 he spent time in Galloway developing a great attraction for and technique in portraying changeable skies. Mitchell liked to paint large expanses of moorland and rolling countryside as well as wide expanses of beach and ocean. He had as strong feeling for sunlight and fluctuating light and shadow. In about 1904 he moved to Corstorphine when there was a change reflecting his new environment, from the breezy to the more pensive sentiment. Mitchell represents the best of this kind of Scottish landscape painting - pure, clear colours, a fluent oil technique and great sense of movement. 

Exhibited: Royal Academy 8, Royal Scottish Academy 99, Royal Society of Water Colour Painters 2, Glasgow Institute 67, Aberdeen Artists Society 3, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool 3. Represented in Aberdeen Art Gallery, Glasgow Art Gallery, City of Edinburgh collection, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Manchester Art Gallery.