“The importance of the studio & the sketch book continues”
— Vincent Tutton
I began my career drawing the human figure, in particular the coal miners of the Rhondda Valleys of South Wales where I was born and raised. As the coal mines disappeared the landscape of the valleys became my subject matter. They seemed to act as a metaphor for my life through which I could articulate my experiences, relationships and memories. This close association with the landscape was to remain the same over the years, wherever my family and I were to live and it still forms the basis for my present work.
As the recipient of an Italian Government Scholorship my family and I visited Italy for the first time in 1967. This was the first of many visits and the start of a long and fruitful personal and creative association with Tuscany (in particular Firenze and the village of Casole d'Elsa). With the assistance of further bursaries we also spent the winter of 1969-70 and later the summer of 1973 in the hills overlooking Firenze. It was during this period that I became aware of the need to explore alternative ways of expressing myself rather than using just conventional drawing and painting techniques. It is within this exploratory work that one can start to recognise the first signs of a more analytical introspective approach in my response to the use of the landscape and how I was expressing myself.
During the early 1980's I became increasingly concerned that the way my work was developing was still not sufficient for what I was trying to say about not just the landscape itself but life, family and the power of emotion that all these relationships bring. I began to explore possibilities using other media until eventually all my final exhibition pieces were also complimented by collages that were created using combinations of painting and drawing techniques, photo images and writing, that related to the same theme. Gradually, these collages or "Visual Diaries" were to dominate my work, as did the search to find a more satisfactory way to try to combine both forms of expression. Furthermore, whatever format this expression took I have always kept a book/journal, the contents of which (written and visual) related to the drawings, paintings and collages. A way of expressing my thoughts and feelings that was to manifest itself more than a decade later with the series of abstract works that emerged during our visits to the farmhouse Corbino in the valley below Casole d'Elsa. It was here that the formal landscape elements within my work were to disappear as I came to realise that they were not really necessary any more for what I was trying to express. Since then, my work has continued to develop and gradually the initial confusion regarding its growing abstraction was to clarify itself in my later work through the Story Book, Window and Chapter Series.
Curriculum Vitae
1943 • Born Ferndale, Rhondda Valleys, South Wales
1962-63 • Foundation Course in Art & Design, Cardiff College of Art & Design
1963-66 • Dip. A.D., Newport College of Art & Design
1966-67 • Post Diploma in Fine Art, Leeds College of Art & Design
1967 • Accademia di belle Arti, Florence
1969-70 • Accademia di belle Arti, Florence
1973 • University of Florence
1977-78 • Higher Diploma in Art Education, Leeds Polytechnic
Awards & Commissions
1961 • 1st Prize, Welsh Arts Painting Award
1962 • 1st Prize, Welsh Arts Painting Award
1967 • Commissioned to paint two large murals for Leeds Education Dept.
1967 • Italian Government Scholarship Award - Painting
1969-70 • Italian Government Scholarship Award - Painting
1973 • Italian Government Scholarship Award - Painting
1986-87 • Fulbright Scholar, USA/UK Educational Exchange Programme, Miami
1994 • Awarded Residency in Painting, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain
1995 • Awarded second Residency in Painting, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain
2007 • Elected Associate Member of Newlyn Society of Artists
Solo Exhibitions
1967 • Compendium Galleries, Birmingham
1972 • Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
1973 and 1975 • Brackenhill Centre, Yorkshire
1984 • Polytechnic of Wales
1984 • Theatre Gallery, St. Agnes, Cornwall
1984 • Wakefield District College Arts Centre, Yorkshire
1985 • Upstairs Gallery, Wakefield, Yorkshire
1988 • Gallery North, Miami. USA
1990 • Clarendon Gallery, London
1990 • Bread Street Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
1991 • Trelowarren House Gallery, The Lizard, Cornwall
1996 • Smiths Gallery, London
1998 • Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
2000-01 • McKinsey's, London
2002 • Royal Cornwall Museum and Galleries, Truro
2003 • Stark Gallery, London
2003 • La Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina, Pisa, Italy
2006 • Hield Gallery, North Yorkshire
2017 • A View From Corbino, Casole d’Elsa, Siena, Italy
2019 • The Window, Retrospective Exhibition, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
Two - Man Exhibitions
1986 • Hawksworth Gallery, Ilkley
1988 • Manor House Gallery, Yorkshire
1988 • Clarendon Gallery, London
1990 • Meridian Gallery, St. Just, Cornwall
1998 • Quaker Gallery, London
2001 • Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
Mixed Exhibitions
1990
• Newlyn Art Gallery Open House Exhibition
• The Laing Collection - Regional Exhibition Bristol
x and finalist at the Mall Galleries, London
• The Artist at Work Exhibition, Dock Street Galleries, London
• The South West Open Exhibition, Plymouth Art Gallery, Devon
• Trelissick Gallery Coastline Exhibition, Cornwall
• Festival de Lorient, Brittany, France
1991
• Horizon Gallery, Lands End
• Beside the Wave Gallery, Falmouth
• The Laing Collection, Bristol
• New Craftsman Gallery, St. Ives
• St. Ives Society of Artists Gallery, St. Ives
• West Cornwall Artists and Crafts Cooperative, Creftow, Cornwall
1992
• Square Gallery, Highgate, London
1994
• Miami, USA - International Exhibition, A New Look at Art on Earth
1995
• Milne and Moller gallery, London
• Peninsula Fine Art Society, The Lizard, Cornwall
1998
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
1999
• Quaker Gallery, London
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
2000
• Art and Paper Fair, Royal College of Art, London
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire - Spring Exhibition
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
• Up and Above Gallery, Falmouth
• Falmouth Art Gallery - Twenty Years of Contemporary Art in Cornwall• Palazzo Comunale, Casole d'Elsa, Siena, Tuscany
2001
• Up and Above Gallery, Falmouth
• Art Garden Gallery, Bristol
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
• Camelford Gallery, Camelford, Cornwall
• Wakefield Artsmill, Yorkshire
2002
• Southdown Gallery, Kent
• Fenny Lodges Gallery, Milton Keynes
2003
• Hicks Gallery, London
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
• Rainyday Gallery, Penzance
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
2004
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
• Trebah Gardens/Wallace Arts Agency, 'Patterns of Growth', Cornwall
• Lander Gallery, Truro - Sense of Place Exhibition
• Merriscourt Gallery, Oxfordshire
2007
• Lander Gallery, Truro - Gone South Exhibition
• Newlyn Society of Artists - Unquiet Earth Exhibition
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
2008
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall
2015
• Serpentine Exhibition Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
2016
• Mullion Gallery, Cornwall