Frank Beanland

Frank beanland

Frank Beanland was a British abstract artist who came to fame in the 1960’s and 70’s when he produced a body of work known as the ‘spot paintings’

He was born in Bridlington, Yorkshire in 1936 and initially studied at Hull college of Art from 1953-1957 before going to Slade School of Art from 1958 to 1961 . The following year he went to Sweden to study at the Royal Academy Stockholm returning to the UK where he lectured at the Swansea college of Art from 1964-1965 and had a studio in Portleven , Cornwall where his love of abstraction really started to take off. He then went to France where he worked at Centre Artistique de rencontres International , Nice until 1973 when he returned to the UK again this time settling in Suffolk where he remained and made his home until his death in 2019. So he had a long period of travel and exposure to various artistic styles which he then began to hone over the years.

The ‘spot paintings’ appear to be influenced by the abstract expressionism movement in New York and many of his works were exhibited and sold in that city during the 1960’s. The paintings are deceptively simple but influenced by nature and history.

The marks Frank Beanland made find their ancestry in the cave painters of pre history, which along with circular indentations and hand-formed spherical objects, were used as votive expressions, In both the birth of art and its re birth in the mid 20th century similar fundamental pre-occupations expressing man’s relationship to the universe emerge .

Beanland steadfast use of the spot painting technique led him to a subtle expression of vastness in the same way as one might experience gazing into our own universe in a cloudless night sky. The experience is verging on transcendental, but the painting remains a finite object which relates to infinity through the differential in the world of colour.

Beanland exhibited with Young contemporaries and London Group in 1960, Arthur Tooth & sons London in 1969,71 & 74 with other shows at University of East Anglia and Galleries in the USA, Venice & Paris.

WANTED ……… we are interested in purchasing the artists ‘Spot Paintings’ so do contact us if you are looking to sell.