Basil Beattie RA draws on architectural motifs to create paintings and prints heavy with psychological and emotional weight.
Artist profile
Basil Beattie studied at West Hartlepool College of Art from 1950-55 and the Royal Academy Schools from 1957–61, then teaching at Goldsmith’s College in the 1980s and 90s.
Beattie is best known for his evocative abstract paintings, featuring architectural motifs such as stairs, tunnels and other apertures which lend psychological and physical complexity to his work. Typically he employs a muted palate of earthy colours and uses expressive, gestural brushstrokes. He is also a printmaker.
He has twice been shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize and once for the Charles Wollaston Award, and in 2007 was given a dedicated gallery at Tate Britain.
