Fred Yates

Large landscape watercolour by Cornish artist Fred Yates of sunrise over forest

Fred Yates was born in Urmston, a suburb of Manchester, England. He began his working life as an insurance clerk but his career was cut short by the Second World War, during which he served in the Grenadier Guards. After the war, Yates returned to Manchester, where he worked as a painter and decorator. It was whilst working in Manchester that he began oil painting. Untutored, he painted pictures of the rich Industrial architecture of Manchester in a style similar to L S Lowry. He subsequently enrolled on a teacher training course at Bournemouth College of Art and taught for 20 years. In 1969, he moved to Cornwall to enable him to devote all his energy to painting. He painted almost exclusively en plein air, scenes of local village life, clifftop and beach scenes. His style gradually became freer and from an earthy, close-toned palette, he started to experiment with lush vibrant colors, thick paint often squeezed straight from the tube, and unmistakable stylized figures. He led a Spartan lifestyle, entirely driven by his art. In the early 1990s, he moved to France to a small village called Rancon, Haute-Vienne, where he painted local scenes. In his later years, he purchased a house in Drome, Rhône-Alpes, where the light and air were more suited to a man in his 1980s. Despite his advanced age, he continued to paint regularly and travel widely. Yates has works in public collections including Brighton and Hove Art Gallery, University of Liverpool , the University of Warwick, Torquay Art Gallery, Russell Cotes Art Gallery & Museum and works in private collections in France, UK, Canada and the USA. Yates died in England in July 2008.