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Versatile artist, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, full name Francis Gerard Dillon, the son of a postman, Gerard was “always trying to see with a child’s innocence and sincerity.” He left school at 14 to work as a painter and decorator and, apart from a fleeting attendance at Belfast Art School in his early twenties and a life class in London in 1967, was self-taught, determined to preserve an individual style. Dillon existed by doing odd jobs in London for several years in the 1930s, returning there for a sustained period after World War II. During the war he lived in southern Ireland, discovering the landscape of Connemara, a major influence. Dillon did some teaching in London and in Dublin, where at The Country Shop he had his first solo exhibition in 1942.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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