Stuart Walton b.1933

Stuart Walton was born in the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury in 1933. He is a self-taught artist, but as a natural talent he won awards in children’s painting contests, all this despite having no formal art school training. As a gifted artist at school he won various art competitions in his teens. However as a ‘working class lad’ he took a job as a sign writer at the Leeds department store, Lewis’s. This was interrupted after being called up for National Service Between 1952 and 1954, Stuart served in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

After National service, he began painting the fast disappearing parts of Leeds. Including cobbled streets, terraced houses and dark back yards.

He didn’t only capture the gritty Northern scenes, but was a prolific abstract artist also. Subsequently he began painting abstractions based on shredded advertisements. Creating a lot of hard-edge abstract paintings, sculptures, and reliefs in the 1960s.

In 1975, Stuart was named the inaugural Yorkshire Television Fine Arts Fellow. Up to the late 1990s, he was represented in several group. One-man, and open exhibitions. Exhibiting both Northern Industrial Landscapes and Abstract Works. Stuarts 1960’s & 70’s street scenes are particularly sought after.

The Hepworth Museum & The Walker Art Gallery have some of Stuart’s paintings in their collections. 

Sadly Stuart stopped painting in 2019.