TERRY FROST

On my way to a Tai Chi class each Tuesday I pass an art gallery which seems to specialise in Post WW2 paintings and prints. The years immediately following WW2 was an outstanding creative period for British art and the Gallery's A-board gave a list which included John Piper, Barbara Hepworth, as perhaps the best known and surprisingly Terry Frost. On last Sunday's (12.10.2014) Antiques Roadshow a lady brought in an oil painting by Terry Frost. Frost learned to paint during the four years he spent in a prisoner of war camp in Bavaria. He painted portraits in oil on fabric torn from pillowcases. I've posted a portrait of one of his fellow prisoners which is similar to the one shown in the broadcast. After demobilisation Frost studied at Camberwell College of Art and settled in Cornwall. He became an active member of The Newlyn School of abstract artists. His career flourished, he was elected to the RA and was awarded a knighthood. His output of huge pure abstract paintings in fully saturated colour was prolific but I prefer his quiet simple compositions shown below. The tilted abstract forms echo the movement of boats in a harbour.