Philip Sutton
(1928–)
Philip Sutton
1928–
Philip Sutton (1928– ) is a British artist who is well known for his painted landscapes, flowers, and portraits. He is a frequent traveller, painting landscapes from around the world. He views colour as a way to re-invent his subjects and often uses a bold colour palette to dramatize his works.
Born in Poole, Dorset, Sutton grew up in East London. After leaving school at the age of 14, he worked in a drawing office for three years before he served in the British Royal Air Force for his National Service. After the completion of his service in 1949, he attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he studied under William Coldstream. During his time at Slade, he won the Slade Summer Composition Prize, was introduced to dealers Henry Roland and Gustave Delblanco, and met his future wife, Heather Cooke, who he married upon graduation in 1953. That same year, the pair explored Europe, travelling to Spain, Italy, and France on scholarships before returning to London where Sutton taught at the Slade School from 1954 to 1963. In 1956, he had his first solo exhibition at the Roland, Browse, and Delblanco Gallery and was elected a member of the London Group. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his work grew in popularity and he was featured in a number of exhibitions across the United Kingdom. In 1988, he has his first exhibition in Paris at Galerie Joel Salaun.
The subject matter of Sutton’s work is deeply related to the landscape and his familial relationships. In 1963, Sutton and his family travelled to Australia and Fiji. After this year-long sojourn, Sutton held a large exhibition of his paintings of the tropical landscape. His family frequently spent part of the year in Cornwall where he would paint the distinctive landscape and portraits of his family members. It was here that he was inspired to explore his interest in form and colour through woodblock printing. Sutton also traveled to Ireland and Crete in pursuit of new subject matter. In 1989, he moved to Wales and the surrounding cliffs and coastal environments deeply inspired his work.
Beyond his painting practice, Sutton took on a variety of design commissions in the late 1970s and 1980s. He created posters, tapestries, banners, postage stamps, and even walls of painted ceramic tiles. His work has been included in a number of solo exhibitions in the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and the United States. His paintings can be found in museum collections at the Tate, London, the Leeds City Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Sutton was elected as a Royal Academician in 1988, and in the same year, a collection of his woodcuts from the 1950s to the 1970s was published. Ten years later, in 2008, a biography titled Philip Sutton: Life and Work, which discusses his life’s work and experiences, was published by the Royal Academy. Despite losing sight in one of his eyes, Sutton has continued to paint into his nineties. He currently lives and works near Bridport, Dorset, where he opened his own gallery in 2020.