Description
Terry Burke - Oil on Board Harbour Scene, signed lower leftTerry Burke.
50cm x 60cm, within a frame.
Painter, Terry Burke (1927-2018) was born in Bradford. He studied at Bradford College, then at the Leeds College of Art.
After Leeds College he was conscripted into the Army Medical Corps for his National Service. After his Army discharge Terry qualified as an art teacher and started teaching at Dagenham, East London, but gave up on health reasons. In 1956 he moved to Torquay and the following year moved to Brixham, Devon, where he made his home, established a studio, and gained a following for his paintings of West Country harbour and other coastal scenes.
In 1969 he had a major success when two London art dealers bought over 50 of his paintings between them, with another firm also buying the rights to print colour print reproductions of his work.
He became a well-known figure in the Brixham area, often seen painting by the harbour, and his paintings and prints became very popular with visitors to the town. He painted in acrylics, oils and watercolours and his work was widely exhibited, including in London, Croydon, Henley, and overseas in Berlin.
Terry liked to say how he and fellow artists may have been responsible for brightening the colours of the Brixham fishing boats:
Terry often returned to Bradford to visit his parents in Baildon and in 1969 had a solo exhibition of his abstract and religious paintings at the Goosewell Gallery, Menston. In 1973 a second exhibition was held at the same venue. He also held a solo exhibition at Bradford Central Library in 1971, featuring ten town and landscape scenes, painted in and around the city and surrounding area over a 14 day period.
In 1972 he worked on a wall mural of a local scene for the Langley Residential School, Baildon
His work is mainly in private collections, although the Royal Naval College hold the ‘Dartmouth’ oil painting.
After his death in 2018 the funeral cortege passed around the harbour at Brixham, stopping at the places Terry painted to acknowledge his long association with the town.
Terry Burke can be seen at work on YouTube in 2011, and examples of his paintings, and a video of him at work, can be viewed at The Strand Gallery, Brixham.
The frame and mounted board are both lose and need some attention or reframing
