Adrian Dingle

DINGLE, Adrian (John Darley Adrian Dingle)

1911-1974

Born in Barmouth, North Wales, he came to Canada with his parents in 1914 and settled in Oakville, Ontario. He worked in an insurance office until he was 19. He left his job to study art and in 1931 took instruction from J.W. Beatty at the summer school of the Ontario College of Art, Tor. (1931). He went to England where he was employed as an illustrator by Stillwell & Darby, Lond. (1935-37) and in his free hours studied at the Goldsmith’s College of Art, London, under James Bateman and John Mansbridge. In England he executed several portraits and exhibited with the London Portrait Society. On his return to Canada he became a regular exhibitor at the OSA annuals and with other groups. Much of his work was sold through the T. Eaton Company’s Fine Art Gallery. In the years that followed he did illustrations for several publishers including the Standard and the Star Weekly and was art director for Bell Features Publishing Co., Tor. (1941-48). He taught at the Doon School of Fine Arts, Doon (Kitchener), Ont. (1952-54) and the Etobicoke Community Art School, Ont. (1954). As a painter he was known for his landscapes, marine subjects, figure studies and portraits. His technique was described by the London Free Press in 1959 as follows, “. . . in every picture there is a heavy underpainting and then an overpaint­ing that gives the impression of glossy varnish and creates a brightness, or feeling of presence of light no matter how dark, drab, or fogbound the colors and atmosphere might be expected to be. The artist varies his palette wisely to present paintings that glow with brilliant color . . . .” Much of Dingle’s painting was done in oils and his output was once said to be from 150 to 200 paintings a year. During the summers he travelled to the east coast where he had painted Cape Breton Island and other areas. During the win­ter, he seldom went beyond a 50-mile radius of Toronto. He also painted in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the British Isles and Massachusetts. His paintings appeared on calendars of Sellotape Canadian Ltd. and on Christmas cards produced by Austin Marshall. His affiliations included: ALCT (1945); ARCA (1948); RCA (1968); OIP (1958); FIAL (1960); OSA (1961) (Pres. 1967-70). He died in Toronto at the age of sixty-three and was survived by his wife Patricia, three sons, John, Christopher and Brian and two grandchildren, Geremey and Tyler. He is represented in the following collections: NGC, Ott.; Lond. Regional Art & Historical Mus., Ont. and the following banks, CIBC, BNS, RBC; Dom. Foundries & Steel Ltd. and elsewhere.

Colin S. MacDonald

A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada