Anthony Garratt

The Sea, the Sea

15 May – 10 July 2021

Anthony Garratt is an experimental painter of landscape and sea. His paintings of Dartmoor and the Devon coast show his love of running and tidal water within the landscape. Since he and his young family moved to Dartmoor, Anthony’s engagement with this wild landscape and its long history speaks in these dynamic paintings.

Anthony Garratt’s new paintings are now available to view and buy. Please phone us on 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk with any enquiries.

Three Breakers 150 x 150cm mixed media on canvas POA

ANTHONY GARRATT does most of his painting outdoors at the mercy of the elements which are liable to wash away his paint and radically change his painting. However this is all part of the story of the piece of work for him. Increasingly he is exploring the human, both political and emotional, within the landscapes he paints, alongside the nature of the paint itself.

In Dartmoor as on Snowdon, there is much evidence of abandoned human efforts and these draw Garratt’s fascination. He is interested in land and seascapes that emphasise the vulnerability of man. ‘Perhaps I regard adversity as a form of beauty, there is beauty in the knowledge that humans are not all powerful and in control of the planet. We are at the mercy of it. If my paintings are able to communicate that beauty, perhaps that is what I am striving for.’

Born in Sevenoaks, Kent, Anthony Garratt studied at Chelsea College of Art and Falmouth College of Arts for a design degree. Having worked as a designer for a few years in London, he was able to take up painting full time following two successful solo shows. He is an artist member of the Royal West of England Academy where he has regularly exhibited. He has also shown work at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Royal College of Arts Henry Moore Gallery having featured on a BBC2 art series.

In 2012, Anthony was invited by BBC1 to paint the Diamond Jubilee Pageant from the Millennium Bridge. His work was selected for a billboard at Regent’s Park tube station during October 2012. In September 2014, Anthony Garratt was commissioned to create four vast, impressive outdoor paintings installed on the island of Tresco, Scilly Isles. These remained on site for three months. Following the success of this commission, a further project was funded called HIGH AND LOW – a spectacular installation in Snowdonia, Wales, featuring two giant paintings, one floating on a lake high on the flanks of Snowdon at Llyn Llydaw, and one deep beneath the mountains in a cavern in the Llechwedd slate mine. This commission was featured on BBC1 Countryfile and received much press attention.

Anthony’s most recent multi-media project was entitled To all at Sea, Anglesey, involving a pivoting double-sided painting whose movements in the wind were recorded and transposed by Anthony into a musical performance involving violinist Philippa Mo and a Welsh male voice choir. The project commemorated the tragic sinking of a ship off Anglesey which caused the initiation of the Shipping Forecast.

Since September 2015, Anthony has been a tutor at the Newlyn School of Art, Cornwall. In London he has shown regularly at the Thackeray Gallery and in Manchester at RVP Gallery. This will be his fourth exhibition at Sladers Yard. Please do let us know if you would like a notification when Anthony Garratt’s new work becomes available to view online.