David Utting
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.
Galleries
-
The Geall Gallery and Art Cafe
Front Street,
Grosmont,
near Whitby,
North Yorkshire
YO22 5QEType of work: Paintings, limited edition giclee prints, and cards.
11.00am to 5.00pm Thursday to Sunday.
01947 895007 -
Artsbank
29 Milton Street,
Saltburn-by-the-Sea,
TS12 1DJType of work: Paintings
01287 625300
http://www.artsbank.co.uk/artists/artist/david-utting/ -
Wold Pottery
79 High Street
Loftus
Saltburn-by-the-Sea
North Yorkshire
TS13 4HGType of work: Framed prints and cards
Open 10.00am to 5.00pm Wednesday to Saturday.
01287 640100
http://www.woldpottery.co.uk
-
Wave Contemporary Craft Gallery
New Road
Robin Hood's Bay
Whitby
North Yorkshire
YO22 4SFType of work: Framed and mounted prints and cards
Open weekends, and all week through the summer.
01947 880420 -
The Whitby Bookshop
88 Church Street
Whitby
North Yorkshire
YO22 4SHType of work: Cards
9.30am - 5.00pm daily
01947 606202
Exhibitions
-
Yorkshire Wolds Gallery
Still Life - mixed exhibition - starts March 2012 - dates TBC
Fordon Lane,
Staxton,
North Yorkshire,
YO12 4TFType of work: Paintings
Open 10.00am - 4.00pm Wednesday to Sunday
01944 710527
http://www.yorkshirewoldsgallery.co.uk
-
Harrison Lord Contemporary Art Gallery
Fresh Faces - mixed exhibition - opens 3rd March 2012
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