Biography

When we are children we are fascinated by the world around us, something which unfortunately we generally tend to loose over time as we become indifferent to our surroundings. There are those amongst us though, those who never forget these delights and attempt to recapture them in some form; Roy Turner Durrant is one of the few who never forgot what he loved as a child. Though his landscapes and portraits range from the beautiful to the bizarre and are obviously the work of a very talented and utterly serious artist, there remains an element of childlike joy in his depictions of what he called ‘flying machines’. This, almost youthful exuberance, is only one of the many elements which has elevated him to an international level of interest in the art world.

As with many artists of this period in time, Durrant took part in World War Two, after which he spent four years at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1948-52). One could imagine that experiences in the war would make a person disillusioned with the world, but not so for Durrant. He emerged from Camberwell as one of the second generation of Neo-Romantics, possibly one of only a handful of artistic groups that seemed to admire the world around them. It was whilst at Camberwell that Durrant mixed with the likes of Craxton, Pasmore, Vaughan and Minton, and whilst definitely remaining his own man, there are touches of their work in his early pieces.

In the 1950’s he moved from figurative works and stylised landscapes to more abstract pieces, much like his contemporaries Alan Reynolds and Pasmore had done. At this time he commented that he wished his work could be seen as “poetry, to engender a state of mind rather than describe exactly what the particular picture is”. Many of his influences during this phase came not only from other European abstractionists, but also from some of the great names in British poetry such as Thomas Hardy, Samuel Beckett, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas.

As with all great artists, there is a subtle evolution in Durrant’s work. In his later works from the 1970’s, there is a simplicity in form which is complemented by a stronger feel for surface and texture. This pairing elevates the work of this time above a simple naivety and gives it a gravity which it would not otherwise have acquired.

Durrant was part of many group exhibitions throughout his career, but his work was regularly shown at Free Painters and Sculptors (where he was a fellow), with the NEAC and at the RA. His solo shows include the Guildhall Lavenham (1948),Grabowski Gallery, London (1959) Loggia Gallery (1981, 1984), the Gallery of British Art in Lausanne (1988), Belgrave Gallery (1991), Chappel Galleries, Chappel (2003) and many, many more. The Fine Art Society most recently held a major retrospective of his work, and one wonders how the famously reclusive and rarely seen painter would have viewed this interest, possibly with bemusement as he seldom went to his own exhibitions and so never saw the way people reacted to his work.