Thames at Low Tide

Fred Yates, born 1922

Oil on canvas, 30.5cm x 41cm, signed lower left

Born in 1922, Fred Yates grew up in Urmston, a suburb of Manchester. His career as an insurance clerk was cut short by the outbreak of war and he served in the Grenadier Guards until 1945 when he returned to Manchester as a painter and decorator. Untutored, but with tremendous self-discipline, Fred began to paint pictures of the rich industrial architecture of Manchester, the red brick terraces and the commotion and humour of street life - a theme that the artist is still concerned with, even in his recent paintings. He subsequently enrolled on a teacher training course at Bournemouth College of Art and in 1950 won a travelling scholarship to Rome and Florence. He taught for twenty years battling continuously against artistic sophistication. For him, beauty resided in “simplicity and a child’s mind”. In 1969 Fred gave up teaching and moved to Cornwall to enable him to devote all his energy to painting.

His idiosyncratic paintings are easily identified by their brilliant vibrant colour, often squeezed straight from the tube. The apparent naïve style masks a sure skill in creating his world of Manchester city life, Cornish villages and French landscapes, populated by his familiar cast of characters. The increasing French feel to his paintings precipitated a move to Central France a few years ago, where he continues to work.

From early exhibitions in galleries throughout Cornwall and the West Country, Fred has now gained recognition as one of Britain's most distinctive painters with successful exhibitions in the UK and abroad. His work inspires a devoted following and he has works in private collections in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Australia and public collections including Brighton and Hove Art Gallery, Liverpool University, the University of Warwick, Torquay Art Gallery and Russell Coates Gallery Bournemouth.