Many of you will know that we had a very close relationship with Fred Yates and held several highly successful exhibitions of his work over the years.
Fred had spent around the last ten years in France, ending up in the commune of La Motte Chalançon in Drôme Provençale. He had decided that he wanted to spend the last years of his life in England and I met him in June 2008 at the Talbot Inn in Mells as he wanted me to see the house he intended to buy in Frome and to discuss his forthcoming exhibition with us in Stockbridge.
The agent took us to this very pleasant terraced house on the outskirts of Frome, which Fred had agreed to buy. It had been totally renovated by a builder and had a ready-made studio in the garden -- perfect.
Back into Frome, a walk with my dog Figgy beside the river and tea at the George where Fred was staying and it was time to say goodbye. I wished him a safe trip back to France the next day, don't overdo it at your age, Fred, and I'll see you in a week or so when you come back to sign the contract. He then told me to wait a minute as he had a present for me -- a little painting he'd done the day before. I said that it must be very wet and he retorted in that Fred way, with a grin, "Oh no, it's not a real painting, it's an acrylic!" It was of the river walk we had just done. I shall cherish it till the the day I die.
Fred never did get to live in Frome. He went back to France to get his affairs in order and put his properties there on the market. About a week later, he stepped off the train in London and had a massive heart attack from which he never regained consciousness.
In my opinion, and that of many others, Fred Yates was the leading British primitive painter of his generation. His work brings joy to his many and ever-growing band of devotees.
Born in 1959 in Ninevah, Northern Iraq, Nael spent much of his childhood studying and drawing animals, birds and people. In the early eighties Nael was granted a scholarship in Iraq to further study in the UK. After a year at Southampton he moved to Scotland and in 1989 he graduated from the highly prestigious Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art. Nael studied in Florence, having been awarded The Royal Scottish Academy John Kinross Scholarship, before returning to Dundee and the rural Angus countryside where he made his home. He has won a number of awards and exhibited in many countries and is a regular exhibitor at the RGI, RSA, SSA and SSAC annual shows. His works are included within major Public and Private Collections worldwide.
He continues to be inspired by his deep love of nature, and his fascination with the elements so dramatically displayed within the Scottish landscape and its coastlines and is now regarded as one of Scotland's finest painters.
Stephen grew up amongst intensely artistic surroundings, as the youngest of four children. He is the son of renowned photographer and pop-artist Nigel Henderson. His mother Judith was raised in and around the infamous Bloomsbury Group, as a niece of Virginia Woolf. The family moved to the East Essex coast in the 1950s, with Stephen being born shortly afterwards in 1956. His teenage years were spent shooting and fishing on the marshes, where he developed a keen eye for the movements and habits of wildfowl and fish. Even today, the workshop and studio at his family home look out across those very same marshes, providing a constant source of inspiration.
The biggest influence on my work came from meeting Guy Taplin, and seeing his carvings at first hand in his workshop was a revelation. From my father, I learned to trust my own eyes and delight in the finding of discarded objects, but there were a lot of resonances here with the way Guy had been working. Many found items became trophies in their own right, lifted off the beach or from a wrecked boat or building and given new significance.
Victor was born in East Belfast. He says, "The big yellow cranes of Harland and Wolf loomed over the rooftops of the rows of tiny red brick terrace houses that were my world. My father, like so many others, worked in the shipyard. He was a carpenter, a master at billiards and he liked a pint. My mother on the other hand was religious. She believed the world was about to end in the final day of wrath that the Bible calls Armageddon. As a child I was often told that I would never grow old. Her belief was that the end was so close, I probably would never finish school. As I grew up, our friends were people who thought that there had actually been a Garden Of Eden. A lovely place full of beautiful trees and crystal clear rivers. You can imagine how this fired the imagination of a boy, who had from an early age, loved to draw".
"Now in my sixties and having finished my education a long time ago, I have had to come to terms with the fact that not only have I grown old, but my demise is fast approaching. Looking back it is perhaps no surprise that dreams of a lost Eden have informed my work. I have made a career painting verdant watery landscapes, from the vast humid marshes of the American Deep South, to the intimate, intricate medieval canals of the Marais Poitevin in Western France. Echoes of that lost world can even be found in the glittering dappled light falling like an enchantment on the still water of Dublin's Grand Canal. With eyes half closed, drowsy in summer heat, one can almost glimpse it".
After leaving college he returned to London, where he taught part time and continued painting. He exhibits regularly throughout the UK and has been awarded numerous prizes including the Horan prize for Painting at the NEAC Exhibition in London and the Façade International Prize for Painting at the Discerning Eye Exhibition in London. He was recently awarded the Baltic Exchange Prize 2018 for painting in the RMSA Exhibition at the Mall Galleries London.
He now lives and works in Dorset.
Born in Co. Wexford, Ireland, Egan studied at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin from 1967-69. She now lives and works in Dublin and has been exhibiting her work to much critical acclaim.
Captivated by people and landscape, her distinctive work explores the endless possibilities of relationships between the two. With themes ranging from still life to haunting portraits of a physical yet mystical Ireland she focuses on what she calls the language of the land and its history. Egan draws inspiration from everyday life and events and works from memory to ensure the feeling is always true and emotive.
Over the past thirty years Egan has firmly established herself in the Irish art arena and has held solo exhibitions in Dublin, Cork, Britain, France, New York and Singapore. Her work, shown regularly at the RHA, has been exhibited throughout Ireland since 1984 and features in private, national and international collections across all continents.
"Last year I was lucky enough to be working around Loop Head in Co Clare and it literally took my breath away. There is something about the ocean that is spellbinding, it has a rawness and serenity, a freedom “to be” that excites and stimulates".