Description
This is a fascinating painting entitled “Bathing Huts On Killiney Beach”. Killiney Beach is in Ireland, where the artist is based. A pen and watercolour painting by Ross Eccles. The colours are very vibrant and lively, with so much detail within the painting that one feels there must be a lot going on in the picture. This small painting is signed and dated 1994. It is sympathetically framed in a “limed” oak frame, mounted with white mounts and is glazed. Frame dimensions are 43 x 37 cm. With the actual painting being 18 x 14 cm.
Ross Eccles was born in Blackburn, Lancashire in 1937, studied architecture and was an architect for 30 years in both England and Canada. He moved to Dublin in Ireland in 1971 where he is still based and has exhibited all over the UK and Ireland as well as Canada and New York. His quirky, twisted, abstract style of painting is often thought to be the antidote to his years of having to draw to the constraints of formality within his life as an architect.
Here is more on this painting from a newspaper column about it….
Eccles…Not just known for cakes! Lancashire Lad Makes it Big in Ireland.
My forte is the buying and selling of antique art primarily from the Victorian era, but sometimes as one goes around the auctions one sees an artist’s work that, if it comes up at the right price, one cannot afford to ignore. Ross Eccles is one such artist. His work is bright, colourful and usually promotes a smile to appear almost unknowingly on my face. I guess his work appeals to my quirky side.
Ross Eccles was born in 1937 in Blackburn in Lancashire, was educated at Clitheroe Grammar School and despite having obvious artistic talent and a desire to paint was told by his parents “to get a proper job” he listened, went to (and graduated from) The Birmingham School of Architecture. He practised as an architect for the next 30 years both in The UK and Canada before settling in Ireland in 1971 where he and his wife raised his family whilst he set up his own practise and continued as an architect for a further 21 years. By 1992 Ross felt architecture had taken up enough of his life…he still had the desire to paint and felt it was time to devote himself to his artistic yearnings. So, at 55 he retired from practising architecture and became a full-time artist.
His style is very much the antithesis to his work as an architect. It is a lot of fun, what I would call happy art! It is almost abstract in its appearance with no, or very few, straight lines ever appearing in his paintings and at first glance a lack of believable structure and form. However, upon further inspection his work is observant, extremely well executed, readily identifiable and very colourful, even if it can seem a little unusual at times. His use of pastel shades and lots of them make for bright and cheery paintings, which does not take itself too seriously. But it is seriously collectible as he has a massive and very supportive following all around the world.
This painting is called “Beach Huts on Killiney Beach” and is dated 1994. Killiney is a seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland. It was painted using pen and watercolour and has lots of character to it with plenty of colour as is evidenced within the trees to the background and the sun bathers and swimmers attending the beach. His use of colour is very attractive but highly unusual. The sky is the same in its abandonment of tradition and yet this is what lends an almost childlike joy to his paintings which is why he is collected the world over. This is a lovely, happy little painting and it has a very low-price tag for a work of this artist.
