Clifford Fishwick

1923-1997

A painter, lithographer and muralist, Clifford Fishwick was born in 1923 near Accrington in Lancashire.  He studied at Liverpool College of Art 1940-42, and 1946-47 (where he gained the Art Teacher’s Diploma), and later in New York.  The intervening years were spent on war services in the Royal Navy.

He was a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists, 1952-1984.  He held his first exhibition in 1957 and subsequently exhibited widely, including at the Penwith Society in the 1950's and 1960's. He also held exhibitions at The Royal Academy and The Royal Society of Artists as well as at many private galleries.  He was appointed Painting Master at the Exeter College of Art in 1947, and he was Principal there from 1958 until he retired in 1984.

As well as being a painter he was an accomplished rock climber and yachtsman and most of his pictures evoke the coasts and landscapes with which he was familiar.  He formed close associations with the St Ives artists Peter Lanyon, Paul Feiler and Trevor Bell.  His work reflects many of the moves in abstract art being made during the 1950s and 1960s within the Cornish groups.

He lived in Topsham, Devon until his death in 1997.  A posthumous Retrospective exhibition was held of his work at Exeter College of Art, when the foyer exhibition area of the main campus building was re-designated 'The Clifford Fishwick Gallery'.  Public galleries in Exeter, Plymouth and Bradford hold examples of his work.

London auctions have recently seen high prices paid for his work and he is certainly one for those who buy to invest in art.