RSA David Michie Travel Award: Deadline: Sunday 23 March 2025, 5pm

  • About
    Mathieu Cardosi, Rangsforf Airfield, oil and mixed media on board

    About

    The RSA David Michie Travel Award (£2,500) provides a travel and research opportunity for graduating and postgraduate drawing and painting students. Funded by the Michie Family and administered by the Royal Scottish Academy, the award consists of:

     

    • A monetary award of £2,500 to fund a period of travel outside the UK for the research and development for a new body of work.
    • An exhibition of selected completed work at the Royal Scottish Academy at a future date.
    • The donation of work into the prestigious RSA Permanent Collections, 'A Recognised Collection of National Significance to Scotland'
  • Eligibility

    Lilian Evans, you were never not mine, oil on lorry curtain

    Eligibility

    • Entrants must be painters.

    • Entrants must either be undergraduates graduating in summer 2025 or currently studying at postgraduate level at one of the following Scottish art schools: Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, and University of the Highlands & Islands.

     

    How to apply

     

    Application has closed for 2025. 

     

    We are pleased to announce this years winner is Lilian Evans. Glasgow School of Art student Lilian will use the award funds to travel to Seattle, Washington, USA, a city shaped by industry and networks of global trade. Lilian’s work engages with discarded materials, utilising unusual materials such as the side curtains of lorries, objects that have travelled great distances, weathered time, and absorbed traces of past journeys. Read more about this year's student award winners here.

     

     Contact Us
  • Previous winners

    Ava Grauls, Mukaishima, 2023, oil and watercolour on canvas

    Previous winners

    • Lilian Evans, 2025
    • Calder Mackay, 2024
    • Mathieu Cardosi, 2023
    • Emma Hall, 2022
    • Ava Grauls, 2021
    • Hannah Paterson, 2020
    • Aidan Stephen, 2019
    • Da Hee Lee, 2018
    • Rachel Hobkirk, 2017
  • About David Michie RSA

    David Michie RSA, Pink Man Passing

    About David Michie RSA

    David Alan Redpath Michie OBE RSA (1928 – 2015) was born at Saint-Raphaël, France. His father, James Michie, was an architect and painter and his mother was the celebrated artist Anne Redpath OBE RSA.

    Michie’s early years were spent living in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and the vibrant colour schemes of the Côte d’Azur would later infuse his work. In 1934, his family settled in the Scottish Borders. In 1946, he enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art where he was taught by William Gillies RSA. In 1953, after a period of National Service, he received a travelling scholarship to Italy, accompanied by his friend, the painter John Houston. They toured the Renaissance sites of Tuscany, and stayed in the hilltop towns of Anticoli Corrado and Orvieto in Umbria. 

    Michie taught widely, lecturing at James Clarke’s School, Edinburgh, and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen. He was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Belgrade and the University of California. He returned to Edinburgh College of Art to teach painting during the 1960s and 1970s, and was Vice Principal there from 1974 to 1977. 

     

    Banner image: Emma Hall, Rhododendron (detail), 2024, oil on canvas

  • Return to Opportunities
  • Works accessioned to the RSA Collections from past RSA David Michie Award winners
    Da Hee Lee, Prelude in C Minor BWV847 played by Glen Gould (Harmony), 2019, watercolour and ink on paper [2019.0132] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Mathieu Cardosi, Rangsforf Airfield, oil and mixed media on board (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Hannah Paterson, My Death Is My Life, 2021 [2022.0013] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Aidan Stephen, Snipers Ridge, 2019, oil on canvas (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ava Grauls, Mukaishima, oil and watercolour on canvas, 77 x 45 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Rachel Hobkirk, Twenty Seconds Too Early, 2018, gloss, acrylic, and oil paints on canvas [2018.037] (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Da Hee Lee, Prelude in C Minor BWV847 played by Glen Gould (Harmony), 2019, watercolour and ink on paper [2019.0132]