Patrick Procktor 1936-2003
Painter of townscapes, landscape, figures, portraits and interiors in watercolours and oils, printmaker and theatrical designer. After studying Russian and serving in the Royal Navy, he attended the Slade School from 1958-62, where he was taught by Keith Vaughan, and took a variety of jobs, including Russian interpreter for the British Council and art broadcaster for the BBC Russian Service. In 1962 he travelled to Italy and Greece and continued to travel extensively, visiting America in 1965 with David Hockney, Norman Stevens and Colin Self and subsequently travelling to North Africa, India, Nepal, China, Egypt and Greece. He has exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in 1963, has shown nationally and internationally and exhibited regularly in group exhibitions since 1957. His work is represented in public collections including the Tate Gallery and MOMA, New York. He also taught at Camberwell School of Art, Maidstone College of Art and from 1965 to 1972 at the Royal College of Art. In the 1960s he produced set and costume designs for the theatre and ballet including Twelfth Night , 1968 and Total Eclipse , 1969 for the Royal Court Theatre. In 1983 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to paint the army in Belize and in 1985 he was asked by the British Council to record the Queen’s visit to Portugal. His early paintings were strongly coloured and heavily painted but in the late 1960s the pigment became thinner and translucent, leading him to concentrate on watercolour painting. The success of the Invitation to a Voyage series of prints, 1969, began a succession of aquatints based on the watercolour records of his travels. His paintings use limpid washes, clean lines and fresh colour to depict the essential elegance of landscapes and townscapes in a simplified but representational style.
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Patrick Procktor Paintings and Drawings
Patrick Procktor: Eric and Gervase, 1969
Patrick Procktor: Smokey Mountain Café, Morocco, 1969
