Neville Fleetwood was born in 1932 and died in 2021. He started painting aged 12 after an enjoyable but otherwise unremarkable holiday to Blackpool. He says: 'We were staying in a B&B and a girl who was also staying there was painting and it just fascinated me. I decided it was something I'd like to try.' His parents encouraged Neville to enroll at Huddersfield Art School at the tender age of 16 where he was encouraged to fulfill his creative potential.
Neville Fleetwood loved his time at art school and says he tried everything from sculpture, life drawing, painting and design. He even went to the night school five times a week. After graduating from art school Fleetwood then worked in a graphic art studio before being called up for National Service. He later returned to graphic design successfully running his own business for thirty years. However, over the years, it was his love of painting which remained undiminished and eventually he retired from business interests in 1983 to concentrate on painting full time.
Since his decision to focus on painting full time numerous prestigious art awards and successful exhibitions have followed and Neville Fleetwood is now recognised as one of Yorkshire’s best loved artists. He is a natural colourist who finds inspiration for his paintings from a number of sources including from other British abstract landscape artists such as Barbara Rae and William Selby. Their influence in Fleetwood's paintings- the use of colour and abstraction - are clear, as is the draughtsmanship of Ken Howard. The art studio in which Neville paints is tucked away at the back of his house. The studio contains not only the colourful painterly landscapes and still-lives for which he is best known, but also a small number of nude studies. These clearly demonstrate Fleetwood's skill as a draughtsman.
Neville Fleetwood landscapes and coastal scenes are predominantly of the Yorkshire countryside with hills and cottages flattened and not in perspective but he is also drawn to the South of France and Cuba. His still life art works are exaggerated not only in colour but in the shapes and sizes of the objects being painted. For Neville the pleasure of painting is in applying paint in bright colours thickly with brush and palette knife. The result are contemporary paintings with a strong, bold use of colour and vibrancy, which have been developed by applying layer upon layer. His landscapes which are full of atmosphere, with patchwork fields arranged into vivid abstract designs whilst his still life paintings contain everyday objects carefully positioned and crafted in suspended space. For Fleetwood what is important is the juxtaposing and playing with how colours work together in a composition that make work visually exciting and vibrant.
Neville Fleetwood likes to work with acrylics, rather than oils. He feels this gives the paintings a fresh vibrant feel and acrylics allow him to work quickly, to revise and repaint as the composition develops. Using broad brush strokes allows Neville to give an initial wash of colour to provide the background upon which thicker paint is often applied using a palette knife. This gives the painterly quality and texture that is so evident and appealing in his art works. Keeping a loose style of working means re-working of paintings possible and paintings are rarely completed in one session but rather are re-visited and re-worked over time. Neville says: 'It is very difficult to stop, but generally I know that when I start to add small touches of bright colour, the painting is nearly finished. I just seem to know when they look right.
In addition to Red Rag Gallery Neville Fleetwood has exhibited widely at art galleries within the UK. He is the recipient of a number of art awards. In 2000 he was also made a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters.
