Tony Roberts & William Plumptre

'Multitude' Exhibition

Tony Roberts trained in Fine Art Painting at Hornsey College of Arts London (1954-1959), and at the Royal Academy Schools (1959-1962), where the teaching emphasised drawing and traditional materials and techniques.

He works in oils, watercolours, pastels, gouache and acrylic paints, exploring three main themes: landscapes, still-life paintings with flowers, and paintings based on Buddhist /Hindu imagery and shrines.

Tony’s approach to painting is interpretive. Explorations of colour and of the drawing process are an integral part of his methods. Mark-making and the materiality of his mediums are as much the subject of his work as the observed image.

Tony Roberts grew up in Enfield, North London and first visited the Yorkshire Dales in 1958, as an art student. He met the painter Norman Adams who became his mentor, teaching colleague and life-long friend.

Tony moved from London to Northwest England in1962 to take up teaching positions at Bolton College of Art and then at Manchester Metropolitan University (then Manchester Regional College of Art and later Polytechnic) where he taught painting for twenty-seven years.

Since 1978 he has lived in The Yorkshire Dales, where he has a studio in a converted Victorian Sunday School.

The landscapes of The Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District are enduring themes in his work.

Tony’s paintings are in private and public museum collections and have been shown nationally and internationally including The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, and galleries in New York, Switzerland and Germany.