Francis Davison

(1919-1984)
Francis Davison had originally intended to become a poet, but after Cambridge was invited to go to St Ives by his former school friend Patrick Heron. Here he met Margaret Mellis and, encouraged by her, he started painting and drawing. In 1950 Francis, Margaret and her son Telfer Stokes moved to Suffolk. Davison’s Suffolk paintings are inspired by the surrounding landscape, with fields and houses distilled to simplified and geometrical forms in black, brown and white. In 1952 Davison gave up painting and for the next 20 years concentrated on collage, creating a distinctive and original body of work which was later to inspire a young Damien Hirst.