Terry Durham

Terry Durham was an internationally known abstract and figurative artist and poet who had exhibitions throughout the world. Terry was born on 24 September 1936 in East Ardsley, West Yorkshire, where he spent his formative years and died on the 6th December 2013 in the town of Alora, Andalucia, Spain. Mostly self-taught, he studied and was greatly inspired by the works of Paul Klee and a wide range of other European artists such as Picasso, Gauguin, and Matisse. He attended the Leeds College of Art before pursuing painting as his profession.

In 1960 at the age of 24 Terry moved to St Mary, Isles of Scilly where he and his wife worked in the Atlantic Hotel for two years. Here Terry found inspiration in the rugged island landscape and the often sunny and temperate climate of the Islands produced the perfect conditions for his painting. It was while working on the island and through his group of friends there that Terry heard of the growing art scene in London. After a short return to Yorkshire Terry moved with his family to Beckenham in Kent in 1964.

While living in Beckenham Terry got to know Nicholas Treadwell and was one of the regular artists with work on "Nicholas Treadwell's Mobile Art Gallery", based nearby in Croydon. Terry was one of the first artists to show at the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery on Chiltern Street in London when it opened in 1968. Terry's early London exhibitions were widely covered in the local press and they brought Terry into the media spotlight and the attention of some of the celebreties of the era including Bill Wyman, Muriel Spark, Lulu and Andrew Bown now of Status Quo.

In the early 1970s Terry moved back to his roots in Yorkshire where he continued to work while holding exhibitions in London. He struck up a friendship with Stuart Walton, a local artist specialising in northern street scenes, and also with Austin Mitchell who was at that time the presenter of the Yorkshire TV news programme Callendar.

One of his paintings appeared on and was analysed by his friend, the late biologist and science historian Jacob Bronowski, in an episode of the acclaimed 1974 television series 'The Ascent of Man' and the accompanying book.

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