My father, David Mallinson, who has died aged 95, began his career as an artist in London in the 1950s, at first painting only at weekends and in the evenings, while during the day he worked as a teacher. But his paintings, many of London streets and squares, soon found a ready market at the Quadrant Gallery, then in Trafalgar Square, as well as being shown at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Influenced by Nicolas de Staël, he turned to semi-abstraction and landscape, exhibiting at the Piccadilly gallery.
His career prospered, and in 1980, he was made head of the Art School of Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College) in west London, and built up a number of design courses, one of which, a higher national diploma in art and design, had an international reputation, with 90% of graduates obtaining a job with firms such as Saatchi & Saatchi within six months of graduation. David was elected as the West London secretary of the Greater London Arts Association (GLAA). He retired in 1990, and in 2003 had a retrospective exhibition at Sally Hunter Fine Art, where 26 of his 30 exhibited paintings were sold.
David was born in Carlisle, the son of William, deputy manager of the Midland Bank in the town, and Mary, a school teacher in the nearby village of Great Salkeld, where the family lived. While at Queen Elizabeth grammar school, Penrith, David was an accomplished rock-climber, runner and tennis-player. But he also realised that he wanted to paint, and in 1943 gained a place at the Slade School in London.
His studies were interrupted by wartime service when the following year he was commissioned into the Black Watch. He was seconded to the Frontier Force Regiment, serving in Burma (where he was machine-gunned by the RAF in a friendly fire incident) and then in Kashmir, the Dodecanese islands, Egypt, Palestine (where he survived a terrorist attack) and Germany, where he was in charge of Bielefeld station.
In Rhodes, he had briefly met his future (Greek) wife, Tina Tusgioglu, corresponding with her for four years from his postings until he married her in Rome in 1950, having decided to continue his studies at the Slade. The years following his graduation in 1952 were productive. While Tina began her career at the Foreign Office’s information research department, he began teaching art, first at schools in north London, and then at Isleworth Polytechnic.
In 2007, David and Tina began dividing their time between London and the south of France. Following an exhibition at the town hall of Cagnes-sur-Mer, simple old age meant that he had to cease painting in his last four years.
He is survived by Tina and by two sons, Adrian and me. Our sister, Leila, died in 2017.
