Journal

Travels Through Colour

July 2024

Our summer show at Frank, Travels Through Colour, is a new collection of works on paper and canvas by Whitstable-based painter, John Butterworth.

John Butterworth graduated in painting with a degree from Winchester School of Art in 1983 and an MA from Chelsea School of Art in 1984. He has exhibited widely since then, including regularly showing at the Royal Academy Summer Show and other open shows, as well as solo and group shows and private collections.

John initially was interested in painting simplified landscape forms. He then moved into more personal subjects after a family tragedy affected his outlook on the world and his art. Subsequent paintings were more outwardly representational, both of people and of John’s private narrative.

John moved to Whitstable in 1993 where the natural elements of the Estuary and the changing skies of the North Kent coast had an immediate impact on his use of colour and vision for his art.

His paintings have also taken on the colours and flavours picked up on his travels, particularly to the Caribbean and India, where he has travelled as part of the England over 60s cricket team.

John’s show at our gallery space takes this theme of travel and imagines a journey through landscapes of trees, buildings, flora—fields of colour evoking place, light, memory.

The show is up from July 11th and all works are for sale. A selection of John’s work is available on our website here.

Thanks to Sam Grady for the exhibition shots.