Roy Turner Durrant

1925-1998

Durrant was born on 4th October 1925 and brought up in Lavenham, Suffolk. His lifelong habit of drawing began aged 5 and he exhibited his first painting in Bury St. Edmunds at the age of 12.  After conscription to the Army he studied at the Camberwell School of Art from 1948 – 1952, where he was influenced by John Minton and Keith Vaughan.

Like many post-war Neo-Romantics he went his distinct, reclusive way, evolving into abstraction and finding forceful organic images that are metaphors for the Suffolk landscapes of his upbringing.

Durrant declared himself to be an instinctive painter who ‘looked at nature, at women and God’s wonderful world’ but he never attended exhibitions – not even his own, which had to be arranged and hung by dealers who were resigned to never meeting the artist.

He had his first one-man show at the Guildhall, Lavenham in 1948, and continued to exhibit regularly at the Royal Academy, Beaux Arts, Loggia Gallery and Belgrave Gallery, London annually throughout his life, and had over 38 one-man shows. He was a fellow of the 'Free Painters & Sculptors Society', and was elected to the ‘New English Art Club’ - by members who never met him. He preferred to communicate through painting drawing and writing. As a poet he published ‘A Rag Book of Love’ in 1960.

He lived in Chelsea until 1959 when after his marriage he moved to Cambridge. He continued to develop his early figurative style, abstracting and simplifying representations of the land, and seasons, drawing on a strong natural sense of design and draughtsmanship.

Durrant's work is featured in numerous collections including The Tate Gallery, The Imperial War Museum, Castle Museum Norwich, Gloucester Museum & Art Gallery, Southampton Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Gallery of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro, Air Force Museum Louisiana.