Charles Mapleston's sensitive and revealing film traces Robert Dawson's early life as a jazz saxophonist, his teaching career and his art.
"He wanted to be a painter, a poet and a musician and I think he achieved all those things." Dawson's widow, Peggy guides us through aspects of her late husband's life revisiting places in Staffordshire and Wales that had been such an inspiration to him and meeting again with Sir Kyffin Williams who so admired his work.
Robert Dawson was always one of the quiet men of art, a man of great modesty. Unlike so many of the younger artists today, he did not aspire to fame or artistic acclaim but quietly contented himself with working out his own problems in his own honest way.
Because he painted what he loved he was able to communicate that love to others. For this reason, I believe, his work will always be appreciated long after so much of the facile creations produced today have been forgotten.
Sir Kyffin Williams, Anglesey, 2000
Just Being an Artist - is now available for the first time on dvd. It includes an additional slide-show of his paintings and a surprise bonus disc.
