1945 - 1954
1948-1950 Liverpool School of Art NDD. Tutors Karl Vogel (Sculpture) and Martin Bell (Painting) Coburn Witherop (Drawing) Stan English (Ceramics) and George Jardine (lino printing
1950 – 52 National Service – Royal Army Medical Corps
1953 Started as Scenic Painter Liverpool Playhouse – continued to paint, influenced by Tachisme, works of David Bomberg and De Stael
1954 – 1966
1960 Poets Johnny Byrne and Spike Hawkins set up jazz and poetry nights at Streate’s Coffee Bar, 51 Mount Pleasant. It was here Don meets Adrian Henri, along with Roger McGough. Close friendship with Henri, Don appears in the painting ‘The Entry of Christ into Liverpool’ and in a poem ‘Me’ Left his scenic designer job at the Liverpool Playhouse to teach art at a High School for 3 years, replacing Adrian Henri.
1964 Moves from Liverpool to a Lancashire Farm, renovating it for the National Trust whist a tutor at Manchester
1967 – 1971
Work changed significantly when he won a commission for the Tagore Theatre, India McKinlay took a sabbatical year in Ahmedabad where he taught and immersed himself in Indian culture. Lived and worked in India 2/7/67 to 24/1/68. His wife left Don and the farm and went to Spain with their daughter.
1968 On return from India began an affair with novelist Beryl Bainbridge, who moved into the farm with 3 children September for several months.
On her leaving he is able to concentrate on his work. Produces some large Indian influenced landscapes 4’ x 4’ Acrylic on cotton, etchings and sculptures.
1972 - 1984
Janina Cebertowicz moves to the farm in 1975 after completion of studies at Bath Academy of Art.
October 1975 Featured in the 2nd BBC2 Arena TV Documentary Series filmed at Eaves Farm.
June 1976 Embarked on a sabbatical trip to India with art materials, camping; vehicle breaks down at the border of Iran and Turkey, September. Maurice Cockrill R A house sits before later moving to London. Don and Jani both live and work in Thassos, Greece for 4 months, travel in Italy and Spain for 4 months.
On return Don develops his work through an increasingly broad range of media: lithography, ciment fondu, mixed media, sculptures in cloth and in wood, large etchings, oil paintings on jute and hessian progressing to cotton canvas.
1982 Contributed to Fifth Last Song. Carol Ann Duffy’s Twenty-One Love Poems. With Illustrations by Liverpool artists, Maurice Cockrill, Henry Graham, Adrian Henri, Don McKinlay, Jeff Nuttall and Sam Walsh.
1983 - 1993
Subject matter becomes increasingly concerned with political events around the world, Belfast, Orgreave, Palestine. Increasing use of material sourced from the media, especially newspapers. Final show of several over the years in Bluecoat after rejection of choice of subject matter.
1994 – 2004
1994 Moves to Rawtenstall, Rossendale Valley renting a studio at Globe Mill. Elected to Manchester Academy of Fine Arts
Works on the Anfield Pieta, Lancaster Madonna at Horse and Bamboo premises Begins to work ‘en plein aire’ Rossendale and Wales
1998 Begins Cammell Lairds Residence to produce a series of drawings documenting the final months of submarine building at the yard.
2000 Begins Reichstag Series Drawings – Regular visits to Berlin during the building of the new Reichstag
2005 -2012
2007 marries Janina Cebertowicz
2007 - 2015 Series of Drawings of Alison, the cleaner, with 2 ASBOs. Continues moving across different genres but starts to explore a single subject through several different media: Carandiru Prison, Ramallah Lynching, and Dancers. Also paints numerous works of his granddaughter, Jani and rabbit. Gradually moves on to working on linen on smaller linen canvases and painting on gesso on board. Revisits Venetian and Classical French artists producing a series of transcriptions
2016 Produces ‘Olive House’, a last set of paintings inspired by the rehab home he stayed in after health problems.
2017 Concentrates on card constructions in the first months of the year.
