Patrick Heron 1920–1999, Writer, Textile Designer and Artist

Patrick Heron 1920–1999, Harbour Window with Two Figures : St Ives : July 1950, 1950, Oil paint and charcoal on hardboard Collection: Tate

Long Table with Fruit, 1949, Patrick Heron, Tate Collection

Patrick Heron lived with his family in West Cornwall as a young child. He moved away when his father extended his highly successful fabric printing business but Patrick continued to return for holidays.  In 1946 he was so inspired by the Braque exhibition at the  Tate that the influence of Cubism can clearly be seen in Long Table with Fruit 1948 and Harbour Window with Two Figures 1950.

He moved from London in 1956 and worked in what had been Ben Nicholson’s studio above the fishermen’s cellars at Porthmeor, St Ives. In the same year Heron, in his role as Art Critic, visited the Tate exhibition on Abstract Expressionism, the gestural brushstrokes and use of colour by American artists such as Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothco were a revelation. Their art work is dependent on the viewer’s reaction – just like a reader interprets what is read, so the paintings needed a two way communication between painting and viewer.

Patrick Heron’s first professional work was at the age of 14 when producing designs for his father. He was passionate about colour and how colour combinations work together so it is not surprising that the 1956 exhibition made such a large impact on his work. From that time he investigated colour and space. He claimed that colour in itself was the meaning, image and form in his work.

from The Brushwork Series No. 3, 1998–9, Patrick Heron, Tate Collection

Heron’s earlier prints were mostly screen prints where he delivered gouache drawings to the print studio and then the printer produced them as a screen print. At the end of his life Heron was again going to produce a set of gouache drawings to be produced as etchings. However, he was persuaded to work himself directly onto resin coated steel plates using his Chinese brushes and sugar paste solution that resisted the acid when etched. The Brushwork series were the result; a series of spontaneously painted etchings with calligraphic marks, splashes and splatters and were some of the last works he made before he died.

This is one of the screen prints recently exhibited at Tate St Ives.

Patrick Heron is also famous for his stained glass window in the foyer of Tate St Ives. Colour makes its impact as soon as the visitor enters the building.