Patrick Heron facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Patrick Heron CBE
'Red Garden Painting: 3–5 June 1985', oil on canvas, 208x335 cm
Born	(1920-01-30)30 January 1920 Headingley, Leeds, Yorks, UK
Died	20 March 1999(1999-03-20) (aged 79) Zennor, Cornwall, UK
Nationality	English
Known for	Painting
Spouse(s)	Delia Reiss

Patrick Heron (born January 30, 1920 – died March 20, 1999) was a famous British artist. He was known for both his abstract and figurative paintings. He also worked as an art critic and writer. Patrick Heron lived in Zennor, a village in Cornwall, England.

Heron was seen as one of the most important painters of his time. He was inspired by artists like Cézanne, Matisse, Braque, and Bonnard. He helped spread modern art ideas through his writing and, most importantly, his art.

Heron's paintings are famous for their use of color and light. He explored how to make all parts of a painting equally important. His work was shown in many exhibitions. He also wrote a lot about art, especially for New Statesman and Arts New York.

Patrick Heron's Early Life

Patrick Heron was born on January 30, 1920, in Headingley, Leeds, Yorkshire. He was the oldest of four children. When he was five, his family moved to Cornwall. His father, Thomas Heron, worked with Alec Walker at a company called Cryséde. They made artist-designed prints on silk.

In 1929, his family moved again to Welwyn Garden City. There, his father started a new company called Cresta Silks. Famous designers like Paul Nash worked with Cresta. Patrick also designed fabrics for the company when he was a teenager. At school, he met Delia Reiss, who later became his wife.

During World War II, Heron chose not to fight because of his beliefs. He worked on a farm in Cambridgeshire. Later, he returned to Cornwall. He worked for Bernard Leach at the Leach Pottery in St Ives from 1944 to 1945. There, he met many important artists from the St Ives School, like Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

Heron loved Cornwall and spent every summer there. In 1956, he bought a house called Eagles Nest and made it his permanent home. He lived there for the rest of his life. Patrick and Delia married in 1945. They had two daughters, Katharine and Susanna. In 1977, he was given an award called the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Patrick Heron's Art Career

Patrick Heron had a special gift. He could create art that was clearly his own. Yet, it also connected to the natural world we see every day. His paintings helped us see the world in new ways. He called this "the reality of the eye."

Heron's first paintings were greatly influenced by artists like Matisse and Cézanne. He worked with many different materials. He designed silk scarves for his father's company when he was just 14. He also designed a stained-glass window for Tate St Ives. But mostly, he was a painter who used oils and gouache.

Early Painting Years

Heron first saw Cézanne's paintings in 1933. This artist influenced him throughout his career. In 1943, he saw The Red Studio by Matisse. After this, Heron painted The Piano, which he considered his first important work.

His first solo art show was in 1947 at the Redfern Gallery in London. That same year, he started painting portraits of T. S. Eliot, a famous writer. One of these portraits is now in the National Portrait Gallery.

Painting from 1956 Onwards

In 1956, Heron moved permanently to Eagles Nest in Cornwall. This move led him to focus on abstract painting. He had a very creative period during this time. His abstract paintings often referenced his garden at Eagles Nest. An example is Azalea Garden, which is now in the Tate collection.

His 'Stripe' paintings, which he started in 1957, were full of light and color. They showed his focus on the power of color. Heron explained that the lines in his earlier paintings became longer and longer. Eventually, they stretched from the top to the bottom of the canvas.

From 1958, Heron's work was shown by Waddington Galleries in London. In the 1960s, he also worked with the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York. When Ben Nicholson moved away, Heron took over his studio in St Ives. This larger space allowed him to paint on a much bigger scale. He created "wobbly hard-edge painting" like Cadmium with Violet, Scarlet, Emerald, Lemon and Venetian: 1969.

Later Painting Years (From 1979)

After his wife Delia passed away in 1979, Heron stopped painting for a while. When he returned to art, he found inspiration in his garden at Eagles Nest again. He started using larger brushes and mixing colors directly on the canvas. This led to a burst of new paintings, like 28 January: 1983 (Mimosa). These works were shown at his Barbican exhibition in 1985.

In 1989, Heron was invited to be an artist-in-residence in Sydney, Australia. He found inspiration walking through the city's Botanic Gardens. In just 16 weeks, he created six large paintings and 46 gouaches. These works captured his visual experiences without directly showing them.

Heron's later career was full of intense creative periods. He had major exhibitions at the Barbican and Camden Arts Centre. In 1994, he created a series of very large paintings for the Camden Arts Centre. These "Big Paintings" toured Britain. In 1993, he designed a colored glass window for the new Tate St Ives.

In 1997, Heron painted a portrait of the author AS Byatt. The following year, the Tate Gallery in London held a major show of his work. This exhibition brought together art from all parts of his career. It showed how the ideas he started with were still present in his later works. Nicholas Serota, a former director of the Tate, called Heron "one of the most influential figures in post-war British art."

After the Tate exhibition, Heron began a series of 100 small gouache paintings. He stopped at 43, which was enough to cover the carpet in his living room at Eagles Nest.

Patrick Heron as an Art Critic

Patrick Heron was highly praised as a writer as well as an artist. Other artists respected him because he could explain art from an artist's point of view. Henry Moore, a famous sculptor, said Heron's writing was special. Georges Braque, another great artist, said Heron's book on paintings shed new light on art.

Heron started writing about art in 1945. He was asked to write for The New English Weekly. His first article was about Ben Nicholson. Soon after, he wrote about Picasso, Klee, Cézanne, and Braque. Within two years, he started giving talks about modern art on the BBC. He also wrote regularly for New Statesman.

In 1955, he became the London Correspondent for Arts Digest, New York. That same year, some of his writings were published in a book called The Changing Forms of Art. In 1958, Heron decided to stop writing regularly as a critic. He said he wanted to be a painter who wrote, not a writer who paints.

However, he continued to write for exhibition catalogues and important articles. In the late 1960s, he wrote articles for Studio International. He questioned why American artists were seen as more important than British and Parisian artists. He also strongly supported the independence of English Art Schools. Heron's articles and essays have been collected and published in books like The Colour of Colour.

Major Art Exhibitions

Patrick Heron's work was shown in many important solo exhibitions throughout his life. Here are some of them:

• 1947: The Redfern Gallery, London (his first solo show)
• 1960: Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York
• 1960: The Waddington Galleries, London
• 1972: Whitechapel Art Gallery
• 1985: Barbican Art Gallery
• 1990: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 1994: Camden Arts Centre
• 1998: Tate Britain
• 2018: Tate St Ives
• 2018: Turner Contemporary

See also

• List of St Ives artists