Fred Yates Artist - Impasto Painter & Friend

Fred Yates Artist and Friend (1922-2008) pictured above with Madge Rastall - early 1970’s

To celebrate his life and works, we at Rastall Art are showcasing some of his fabulous art, in our Fred Yates Gallery we have classic oil paintings, pen and ink drawing and some wonderful early art.

Fred Yates Artist and Life

Fred Yates was an English artist from Urmston, Lancashire. He is known for his heavy impasto British Naïve painting style and for his love of painting the lives of ordinary people going about their daily business.

Having lost his twin brother at Arnhem in 1944 Fred was a shy and gentle man who kept a private lifestyle, however Fred would paint ‘en plein air’ and was happy to chat to onlookers and admirers of his work.

After his time in the Grenadier Guards and an unhappy time working in insurance, Fred gained a place at Bournemouth Teacher Training College where he received his formal art training.

Later Fred went on to teach painting in Devon and the south coast, but this was never really where his heart lay, Fred Yates was a artist, not a teacher. In 1968 he decided to quit teaching and paint full-time. Moving to Cornwall, Fred is known for his wonderful cove & harbour paintings as well as his Cornish cottage and woodland walk scenes.

His shy personality sat well with his desire for a solitary lifestyle, often living in very simply furnished houses both in the UK and France. His first solo show was at the Reynolds Gallery, Plymouth in 1976 but later grew links with Thompson’s Gallery in London and the John Martin Gallery. Whilst London Galleries were influential in Fred Yates artistic later life, the support from The New Street Gallery in Plymouth, Avalon Art in Marazion and Courcoux Contemporary helped grow Fred’s grass roots support from collectors in the earlier years.

Eventually France beckoned and Fred moved several times living in old mills and village cottages. As a artist Fred Yates would capture the local scenes & people and then move house to enjoy and paint new light and new landscapes. His painting matured, and Yates was maybe more experimental, freer and daring as an older artist, and unlike the early days, he could afford good paints and plenty of them! Fred Yates was known to paint quickly and often applied paint thickly from the tube, directly to the canvas (early Northern & Cornish works are usually on board), knives, brushes or just fingers were all used to create textures.

Fred was returning to the UK to settle in Frome in his final years but sadly passed away on that journey home (2008).

Fred Yates is buried in Marazion in Cornwall overlooking his beloved St Michael’s Mount.

If you are interested in learning more about Fred Yates and his developing painting styles, why not read our blog Fred Yates: Two Paintings, One Life