Biography
Painter of abstracts in oils, watercolours and gouache. Born in Fife, Scotland, from 1936-7 he studied art at Edinburgh University with Gillies, Maxwell and McTaggart. He won a traveling scholarship to Paris and worked at the Academie Colarossi under Leger. Between 1937-38 he traveled to Italy, Greece and the Balkans and during the war he exhibited abroad.

Between 1947-50 he lived in Paris and then settled in England, visiting America in 1957 and 1959. In Paris he worked with the COBRA Group, exhibiting with them in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Not only was he associated with the School of Paris, but he was also aware of developments in American art, meeting Milton Rosnick, Marcarelli and Rothko in Paris, and exhibiting with Jackson Pollack in 1949.

From 1948 he exhibited with Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, and his work had appeared nationally and internationally, including the 1954 Venice Biennale.

Between 1954 and 1985 a number of retrospective exhibitions were held. A member of the London Group in 1953, between 1958-64 he was curator of the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, and from 1964-75 Head of Fine Art, Birmingham Polytechnic.

In 1951 he was awarded a Festival of Britain Purchase Prize and in 1975 the Lorne Fellowship. He was elected RA in 1995.

In his early Cubist-abstract paintings a dark armature supported coloured areas, often with a figurative reference. His work progressively became freer, exploring the contrast between dark, light and colour. A natural colourist, Gear described his works as "statements of kinship with the natural world".

His work is held in many major public and private collections around the world.