Frank Beanland  (Born 1936)
White Pylon & Grey Sea
Oil on board, 1999
$6 x 61cm
£850

Born in 1936, Bridlington, Yorkshire, he initially attended Hull College of Art from and after two years of National Service studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, 1959 – 1961. Beanland won a scholarship to continue his studies in Stockholm before returning to live in Cornwall. In 1962 he was invited by a fellow Slade student to join a number of other artists in Porthleven and exhibiting as the ‘Porthleven Group’.

His first solo shows were held at the Drian Gallery, London. In 1964 he took up a teaching post at Swansea College of Art. It was at this time that his ‘spot paintings’ began to emerge, his focus moving from texture to light and colour.  Guy Brett remarked in The Times, by ‘employing crowded, all-over compositions, Beanland gives his paintings a force more reminiscent of Jackson Pollock than Monet or Renoir’.

His spot paintings were first shown at the Grabowski Gallery in 1967, and subsequently he developed a good working relationship with Arthur Tooth & Sons where he exhibited between 1969 and 1974.