Sir Terry Frost

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Frost, Sir Terry (1915–2003). British painter, born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, one of the leading artists of the St Ives School. He attended evening classes in art when he was sixteen, but then worked at various jobs, mainly concerned with electricity and radio, and did not take up painting until 1943, when he was a prisoner of war in Germany. His fellow prisoner Adrian Heath encouraged him. After the war Frost studied at St Ives School of Art (1946) under its founder Leonard Fuller (1891–1973), then at Camberwell School of Art (1947–50) under Coldstream and Pasmore (whom he described as ‘my god'). In 1951 he worked as assistant to Hepworth, and he lived at St Ives for much of the 1950s and 1960s. His early work was in the sober realistic tradition of the Euston Road School, but he soon turned to abstraction. His work remained based on observations of nature, however, often the harbour at St Ives. Of Blue Movement (Vancouver Art Gallery, 1953) he wrote: ‘On one particular blue twilit evening, I was watching what I can only describe as a synthesis of movement and counter-movement … the rise and fall of the boats … the opposing movements of the incoming sea and the outblowing off-shore wind … I was trying to give expression to my total experience of that particular evening. I was not portraying the boats, the sand, the horizon or any other subject matter but concentrating on the emotion engendered by what I saw. The subject matter is in fact the sensation evoked by the movement and the colour in the harbour. What I have painted is an arrangement of form and colour that evokes for me a particular feeling.’ Characteristically he used patterns of interlinked shapes—strongly outlined but avoiding geometrical regularity. Frost taught at Bath Academy of Art, 1952–4, Leeds College of Art, 1956–9, and Reading University, 1965–81. He was appointed professor at Reading in 1977 and became emeritus professor on his retirement. His son Anthony Frost (1951– ) is also an abstract painter of the St Ives School.

Frost, Sir Terry (b Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 13 Oct. 1915; d nr. Newlyn, Cornwall, 1 Sept. 2003). British painter, one of the leading St Ives painters. He started painting in 1943 when he was a prisoner of war, encouraged by his fellow prisoner Adrian Heath, then studied at St Ives and under Coldstream and Pasmore at the Camberwell School of Art, 1947–50. He began painting in the sober, naturalistic tradition of the Euston Road School, but he soon turned to abstraction. His work remained based on observations of nature, however, often the harbour at St Ives. Characteristically he used patterns of interlinked shapes—strongly outlined but avoiding geometrical regularity. He taught at various art schools, notably at Reading University, 1965–81. His son Anthony Frost (1951– ) is also an abstract painter of the St Ives School.

Frost, Sir Terry (1915–2003). British painter, one of the leading St Ives painters. He started painting in 1943 when he was a prisoner of war, encouraged by his fellow prisoner Adrian Heath, then studied at St Ives and under Coldstream and Pasmore at the Camberwell School of Art, 1947–50. He began painting in the sober, naturalistic tradition of the Euston Road School, but he soon turned to abstraction. His work remained based on observations of nature, however, often the harbour at St Ives (where he lived for much of the 1950s and 1960s). Characteristically he used patterns of interlinked shapes—strongly outlined but avoiding geometrical regularity. He taught at various art schools, notably at Reading University, 1965–81. His son Anthony Frost (1951– ) is also an abstract painter of the St Ives School.