Highly acclaimed British painter Donald Hamilton Fraser is renowned for the landscape and figurative works that have defined his long and successful career as an artist. Born in London, Fraser was educated at Maidenhead Grammar School in Berkshire, and soon after trained as a journalist with Kemsley Newspapers. After completing his National Service in 1949, he decided to pursue his deep-rooted interest in painting, and attended St Martin's School of Art from 1949 – 1952. Having already attracted a degree of notice, in 1953 the Gimpel Fils gallery in London gave him the first of many one-man shows. That same year he was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris for a year, where he began to fully embrace his skills and confidence as a painter. In 1958, Fraser was taken on as a tutor in the painting school of the Royal College of Art, where he remained for twenty-five years.

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In 1970 Fraser was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Art, and an Honorary Fellow in 1983. He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1985 and later became a trustee in 1994. From 1986-2000 he was a Member of the Royal Fine Art Commission, and from 1992-2000 was an Honorary Curator of the Royal Academy. With a widely celebrated body of work spanning over fifty years, Fraser’s work has been exhibited in major galleries and cities across the world, including Paris, New York, Tokyo, Jerusalem and Zurich. His work is featured in public collections, including that of Queen Elizabeth II, City Art Galleries (Hull, Nottingham, Reading, Cheltenham, Southampton and Guilford), the Arts Council of Great Britain, and the National Gallery of New South Wales (Melbourne, Australia).

Fraser participated in many significant exhibitions of British art, including the Royal Academy's ‘25 Years of British Painting’ in 1977. He taught alongside other major British artists such as Sir Peter Blake in the 1960s, and tutored some of the most influential British artists of the 20th century, including David Hockney, Patrick Caufield and R. B. Kitaj. After much study and travel, including tutoring at the Royal College of Art, contact with the Post-war École de Paris, and a long relationship with the Royal Academy, Fraser spent his final years with his wife by the river at Henley-on-Thames.

Fraser’s predominant subject matter is landscape, with his approach and techniques varying as widely as the climates and atmospheres he captures. His affinity with Scotland’s heritage and spirit are integral to his works. The artist often places gentle washes of colour next to hard edge and bright impasto, creating landscapes that remain close to their origins but are charmingly translated into abstract, almost dream-like fields of colour.