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E d w a r d B e a l e :D o i n g t h e L a m b e t h W a l k

Filling an entire wall of the terraced house that

London artist Edward Beale (b.1950) shares

with his partner Claire Edwards is a painting of

the Lambeth rooftops viewed from the terrace

beyond. It was painted on this very spot nearly

thirty years ago, just a stone’s throw from where

Beale was born and brought up. Gnarled peaks of

impasto define the grey and red brick buildings that

throb with life, the tight structure of the

composition anchoring it to urban reality. This

painting encapsulates a slice of Beale’s life, during

which time he has become an increasingly

respected and successful figure on British figurative

art scene. “I sold this work through Agnew’s in

1982,” he says. “Barings Bank bought it. After the

firm collapsed in 1995, it was eventually returned to

Agnew’s. I decided to buy it, so it was back on my

living room wall twenty years after I first sold it.”

The style of this particular painting is more

contained than the fluid, joyful broad strokes of

colour Beale uses nowadays. His palette is easy to

recognise as the viewer’s eye jumps across the

stacks of paintings in his basement studio at the

property: bruise-like purples, cerulean blues,

peach and ochre, and reds from vermilion to

crimson. Some of the paintings in the studio go

back to his student days at Camberwell College of

Growing up in a working-class family in SouthLondon provided a nurturing environment for artistEdward Beale, who has a new one-man showopening in October.

By Viv Lawes

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opposite: White lilies against blue -30x24 inches

below: Cork oaks on the road to Oms24x34 inches

Art and the Royal Academy, while others are still

drying. Among them are the thirty-five paintings

that Beale is exhibiting in his forthcoming one-

man show at Petley’s Gallery, London.

All of those destined for the show have been

painted within the last year, and include

landscapes, still-lifes and a single nude figure

painting. The flower paintings are reminiscent of

Van Gogh – one of his heroes, along with Chaim

Soutine and Matthew Smith. They ache with

colour, the petals forcing their way across the

picture surface with strong, directional

brushstrokes, while the nude figure has the same

life force as that revealed in Beale’s superb

drawings, where broken and striated lines gang up

to create solid, living beings. The most

biographical of the works in the show are the

landscapes, which are eloquent in describing

Beale’s present life as an artist: although he is

anchored to London, he spends much of the year

travelling to favourite haunts in the Hebrides,

Spain and southern France. He is prolific when he

goes to each location, never wasting a single

moment in order to capture the soul of the

landscapes that entrance him.

Friends provide the space to make this possible, a

happy arrangement that has grown from Beale’s

special relationship with his Cork Street art dealer,

Roy Petley. It is not the relationship of artist to

businessman, but one of artist to artist: self-

taught Petley set up his eponymous gallery in

2003 on the back of his own commercial success

as a figurative artist. The meeting between the

two men was fortuitous. Beale reveals, “A friend

told me about Roy, so I went to his gallery and left

some drawings. He was in France at time, and

when he came back he visited me in the studio; he

liked what he saw and bought several works

outright. This is rare in a dealer and proves that

they believe in your work.” Petley’s instinct was

followed up with a solo show for Beale in 2004,

with the gallery hosting wildly successful annual

exhibitions ever since.

Beale is very clear about what he wants to achieve

personally in his paintings: “I want them to be

joyous, life affirming. With the landscapes, it

doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t have to

be a sunny spot in the South of France – it could

be the London docks in abysmal weather. It’s all

about catching the atmosphere of the day, getting

across how amazing it all is. For me, painting isn’t

about angst but about celebrating the fact that I’m

in a position to enjoy the world and engage with it

by capturing it in a work of art.”

For the viewer the appeal of Beale’s paintings also

lies within the life force they emit. This is partly

down to his working methods: he always paints en

plein air and aims to finish a painting within one

day. “I always consider that I’ve just got that day

and that surface to work with,” he says. “Once I’ve

started I don’t stop; I just keep flying either until

the light’s gone and I cannot do any more, or, if

I’m lucky, the magic just happens and it’s done. All

of a sudden things may start to gel, then you go

into another gear and the work is painting itself.

The only problem is then recognising the moment

to stop. Just because they are made quickly, it

doesn’t mean they’re superficial.”

Another compelling quality comes from the

materials he uses. Ever since he was a student he

has used oil paint by R J Stokes of Sheffield, a

loyalty he shares with figurative luminaries Frank

Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. He originally used

their paints because they were cheap, but the

characteristic paste-like texture of the paint soon

became a defining quality of his style. While many

suppliers of household paints have moved across

to water-based products, Stokes has continued to

manufacture these oil paints with artists in mind.

“They are not like any other oil paints,” he says.

“The way they are produced means that there is a

greater viscosity and tactile quality. I like the way

the unpredictable quality in the paint opens up

new possibilities within the painting.”

It is this quality that means his work is always

impastoed – even when he has scraped away

some of the layers to reveal the crimson blocks of

the compositional layers underneath. The quick

drying nature of the paint is another reason why

he works quickly, since only a day’s drying time

makes the material tacky and difficult to

manoeuvre. “I love to push the paint around –

even a few moves can totally change the whole

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look of the painting.” He keeps the working time

open for longer by applying a layer of pure linseed

oil across the primed board support – he never

works on canvas, preferring the smooth surface of

board – which prevents the primer from sucking

out the oil form the paint itself.

The joy Beale has in the very act of painting is

palpable. He lives what he describes as an ordinary

life, shying away from self-publicity and thanking

his good fortune for having a family that supported

him in his quest to be an artist. His father was a

docker and expectations among his peers growing

up in Lambeth were limited. “My father didn’t want

me to follow in his footsteps. When I told him that

I intended to be an artist, he just said, ‘Come on

then, there’s an art shop over there’.”

School was a less nurturing environment as

teachers and careers officers encouraged him to

apply for manual jobs, including that of petrol

pump attendant and typewriter mechanic.

Although he took his art A Level two years early,

he never gained additional qualifications, instead

putting his energies into going to Camberwell

College open classes until he was old enough to

apply for a place there. “I remember going into

school on the day my acceptance letter came

through. One of the teachers lectured me on the

fact that I never came to classes. I just waited

until he’d finished and then got the letter out.”

Having already enjoyed a forty-year career, his

only concern is for the future of figurative art in

Britain. Institutional taste has, for a generation,

been focused on conceptual art and the academic

critical theories that lie behind it. However,

institutions do not tell the whole story and the fact

that his work has enjoyed commercial success is

proof that Britain still has a market hungry for

both implicit skill and evocative imagery.

The Edward Beale exhibition runs from 5 October

at Petley’s Gallery, 9 Cork Street , London, W1S

3LL. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7494 2021.

www.petleys.co.uk

opposite: Pink oriental lily withlemons -30x18inches

above: Mountain track near La Losa,Castile 24x36 inches