art of england - edward beale
DESCRIPTION
Viv Lawes writes in Art of England about Edward Beale.TRANSCRIPT
36
E d w a r d B e a l e :D o i n g t h e L a m b e t h W a l k
Filling an entire wall of the terraced house that
London artist Edward Beale (b.1950) shares
with his partner Claire Edwards is a painting of
the Lambeth rooftops viewed from the terrace
beyond. It was painted on this very spot nearly
thirty years ago, just a stone’s throw from where
Beale was born and brought up. Gnarled peaks of
impasto define the grey and red brick buildings that
throb with life, the tight structure of the
composition anchoring it to urban reality. This
painting encapsulates a slice of Beale’s life, during
which time he has become an increasingly
respected and successful figure on British figurative
art scene. “I sold this work through Agnew’s in
1982,” he says. “Barings Bank bought it. After the
firm collapsed in 1995, it was eventually returned to
Agnew’s. I decided to buy it, so it was back on my
living room wall twenty years after I first sold it.”
The style of this particular painting is more
contained than the fluid, joyful broad strokes of
colour Beale uses nowadays. His palette is easy to
recognise as the viewer’s eye jumps across the
stacks of paintings in his basement studio at the
property: bruise-like purples, cerulean blues,
peach and ochre, and reds from vermilion to
crimson. Some of the paintings in the studio go
back to his student days at Camberwell College of
Growing up in a working-class family in SouthLondon provided a nurturing environment for artistEdward Beale, who has a new one-man showopening in October.
By Viv Lawes
37
opposite: White lilies against blue -30x24 inches
below: Cork oaks on the road to Oms24x34 inches
Art and the Royal Academy, while others are still
drying. Among them are the thirty-five paintings
that Beale is exhibiting in his forthcoming one-
man show at Petley’s Gallery, London.
All of those destined for the show have been
painted within the last year, and include
landscapes, still-lifes and a single nude figure
painting. The flower paintings are reminiscent of
Van Gogh – one of his heroes, along with Chaim
Soutine and Matthew Smith. They ache with
colour, the petals forcing their way across the
picture surface with strong, directional
brushstrokes, while the nude figure has the same
life force as that revealed in Beale’s superb
drawings, where broken and striated lines gang up
to create solid, living beings. The most
biographical of the works in the show are the
landscapes, which are eloquent in describing
Beale’s present life as an artist: although he is
anchored to London, he spends much of the year
travelling to favourite haunts in the Hebrides,
Spain and southern France. He is prolific when he
goes to each location, never wasting a single
moment in order to capture the soul of the
landscapes that entrance him.
Friends provide the space to make this possible, a
happy arrangement that has grown from Beale’s
special relationship with his Cork Street art dealer,
Roy Petley. It is not the relationship of artist to
businessman, but one of artist to artist: self-
taught Petley set up his eponymous gallery in
2003 on the back of his own commercial success
as a figurative artist. The meeting between the
two men was fortuitous. Beale reveals, “A friend
told me about Roy, so I went to his gallery and left
some drawings. He was in France at time, and
when he came back he visited me in the studio; he
liked what he saw and bought several works
outright. This is rare in a dealer and proves that
they believe in your work.” Petley’s instinct was
followed up with a solo show for Beale in 2004,
with the gallery hosting wildly successful annual
exhibitions ever since.
Beale is very clear about what he wants to achieve
personally in his paintings: “I want them to be
joyous, life affirming. With the landscapes, it
doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t have to
be a sunny spot in the South of France – it could
be the London docks in abysmal weather. It’s all
about catching the atmosphere of the day, getting
across how amazing it all is. For me, painting isn’t
about angst but about celebrating the fact that I’m
in a position to enjoy the world and engage with it
by capturing it in a work of art.”
For the viewer the appeal of Beale’s paintings also
lies within the life force they emit. This is partly
down to his working methods: he always paints en
plein air and aims to finish a painting within one
day. “I always consider that I’ve just got that day
and that surface to work with,” he says. “Once I’ve
started I don’t stop; I just keep flying either until
the light’s gone and I cannot do any more, or, if
I’m lucky, the magic just happens and it’s done. All
of a sudden things may start to gel, then you go
into another gear and the work is painting itself.
The only problem is then recognising the moment
to stop. Just because they are made quickly, it
doesn’t mean they’re superficial.”
Another compelling quality comes from the
materials he uses. Ever since he was a student he
has used oil paint by R J Stokes of Sheffield, a
loyalty he shares with figurative luminaries Frank
Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. He originally used
their paints because they were cheap, but the
characteristic paste-like texture of the paint soon
became a defining quality of his style. While many
suppliers of household paints have moved across
to water-based products, Stokes has continued to
manufacture these oil paints with artists in mind.
“They are not like any other oil paints,” he says.
“The way they are produced means that there is a
greater viscosity and tactile quality. I like the way
the unpredictable quality in the paint opens up
new possibilities within the painting.”
It is this quality that means his work is always
impastoed – even when he has scraped away
some of the layers to reveal the crimson blocks of
the compositional layers underneath. The quick
drying nature of the paint is another reason why
he works quickly, since only a day’s drying time
makes the material tacky and difficult to
manoeuvre. “I love to push the paint around –
even a few moves can totally change the whole
38
39
look of the painting.” He keeps the working time
open for longer by applying a layer of pure linseed
oil across the primed board support – he never
works on canvas, preferring the smooth surface of
board – which prevents the primer from sucking
out the oil form the paint itself.
The joy Beale has in the very act of painting is
palpable. He lives what he describes as an ordinary
life, shying away from self-publicity and thanking
his good fortune for having a family that supported
him in his quest to be an artist. His father was a
docker and expectations among his peers growing
up in Lambeth were limited. “My father didn’t want
me to follow in his footsteps. When I told him that
I intended to be an artist, he just said, ‘Come on
then, there’s an art shop over there’.”
School was a less nurturing environment as
teachers and careers officers encouraged him to
apply for manual jobs, including that of petrol
pump attendant and typewriter mechanic.
Although he took his art A Level two years early,
he never gained additional qualifications, instead
putting his energies into going to Camberwell
College open classes until he was old enough to
apply for a place there. “I remember going into
school on the day my acceptance letter came
through. One of the teachers lectured me on the
fact that I never came to classes. I just waited
until he’d finished and then got the letter out.”
Having already enjoyed a forty-year career, his
only concern is for the future of figurative art in
Britain. Institutional taste has, for a generation,
been focused on conceptual art and the academic
critical theories that lie behind it. However,
institutions do not tell the whole story and the fact
that his work has enjoyed commercial success is
proof that Britain still has a market hungry for
both implicit skill and evocative imagery.
The Edward Beale exhibition runs from 5 October
at Petley’s Gallery, 9 Cork Street , London, W1S
3LL. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7494 2021.
www.petleys.co.uk
opposite: Pink oriental lily withlemons -30x18inches
above: Mountain track near La Losa,Castile 24x36 inches