A Passion for Paint: The Life and Work of Barrington Tabb - Softcover

Benington, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904537626 ISBN 13: 9781904537625

Publisher: Sansom & Co, 2006

Synopsis

This book describes Tabb's fifty-year career, from his earliest landscapes to his best-known industrial scenes and townscapes. His childhood, work and battle against ill health are also described. Tabb's working methods and influences are also discussed,

About this title

Synopsis

The Barrington Tabb story is one of quiet but stubborn perseverance against the odds. For nearly fifty years, Tabb's art has been dedicated to everyday subjects: working class terraces, the docks, railway bridges, canals and smoking factory chimneys. Having worked in industry for twenty-five years, he was very familiar with these places, although his working class background proved an obstacle to his artistic ambitions. Almost totally self-taught, he never lost faith in his natural talent, however much he was discouraged by friends, family and fellow artists. He has no great desire for fame or money. He is intoxicated by the smell, the feel, the colour and the texture of paint. Guided by his instincts alone, he handles his expressive medium with all the gutsy passion of a Vincent Van Gogh or a Lucian Freud. Yet his work remains totally original, for he brings his imagination into play and the end result is never a mere descriptive record. His places are felt and experienced, imbued with a sense of the passage of time and the working of memory. By bearing the signs of the artist's emotional engagement so openly, Tabb's paintings are somehow alive. He is to Bristol what Lowry was to Salford. This book describes Tabb's fifty-year career, from his earliest landscapes through to the industrial scenes and townscapes for which he is best known. His childhood in the country, his work as an inspector of buses and his long battle against ill health are also described. The artist's working methods and influences are discussed, aided by quotes from an interview together with over 150 colour reproductions of his paintings.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sansom & Co
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1904537626
• ISBN 13: 9781904537625
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160