The individual painting style of David Utting, strong line and colour working together with delicate detail, has developed without formal training.
His early interests, the snow scenes of Breugel, the vigour of Van Gogh and Picasso, and later the work of the northern painters Geoffrey Key and Peter Brook, reflect this tension and continue to influence his work.
His love of painting was a constant in his early years in Nottingham, and throughout his working life - at a rose nursery, with a joiner, a builder, in a electronics factory, and finally in the police.
After 25 years as a constable he moved to Cornwall to paint full time, where light and colour, boats and harbours, working fishermen, and families on holiday became his subject for several successful years.
Then, finding the southern climate left him restless, and missing the changing seasons, frosts and snow of his northern roots, he moved to North Yorkshire, already familiar through visits from Nottingham to Whitby.
Here he has begun to understand his inspiration.
This colourful landscape provides both of the contrasting elements of his work; the strong shapes and colours in red roofs, bright painted boats, steep hills and roads; and fine detail in the pattern of windows and doors, rigging and lifting gear, bleached moorland grasses and grazing cows.
It has also revealed the underlying source of his inspiration – the shaping of the landscape by the work of the men and women who have made a living and a home here. Cultivated fields, hedges and barns, the tumble of houses to the water’s edge, fishing and holiday boat trips, tracks in the snow to an outlying farm, these are the foundations of his work, the subjects that recur throughout his paintings, recording life and work with humour and dignity.
Front Street,
Grosmont,
near Whitby,
North Yorkshire
YO22 5QE
Type of work: Paintings, limited edition giclee prints, and cards.
11.00am to 5.00pm Thursday to Sunday.
01947 895007
29 Milton Street,
Saltburn-by-the-Sea,
TS12 1DJ
Type of work: Paintings
01287 625300
http://www.artsbank.co.uk/artists/artist/david-utting/
79 High Street
Loftus
Saltburn-by-the-Sea
North Yorkshire
TS13 4HG
Type of work: Framed prints and cards
Open 10.00am to 5.00pm Wednesday to Saturday.
01287 640100
http://www.woldpottery.co.uk
New Road
Robin Hood's Bay
Whitby
North Yorkshire
YO22 4SF
Type of work: Framed and mounted prints and cards
Open weekends, and all week through the summer.
01947 880420
88 Church Street
Whitby
North Yorkshire
YO22 4SH
Type of work: Cards
9.30am - 5.00pm daily
01947 606202
Fordon Lane,
Staxton,
North Yorkshire,
YO12 4TF
Type of work: Paintings
Open 10.00am - 4.00pm Wednesday to Sunday
01944 710527
http://www.yorkshirewoldsgallery.co.uk
5 Bradford Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, HD6 1RW
Type of work: Paintings
Open Monday to Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm. Closed Sundays.
01484 722462
http://www.harrisonlord.co.uk
This wide view of Baytown takes my breath away. I see it walking back to Robin Hood’s Bay from Boggle Hole along the top of the cliffs.