Village under the Cliffs
About this artwork
Village under the Cliffs was painted in Houston's Edinburgh studio from sketches made near the village of Staithes. The artist visited Staithes, which is situated to the north of Whitby on the Yorkshire coast, in the winter of 1961. Although the style of the painting verges on abstraction, the subject can still be seen. Houston has used structured horizontal and vertical brushstrokes to describe the houses in the village. The white marks in the sky represent seagulls. The intense colours and vigorous brushstrokes are typical of Houston's style of the period.
Updated before 2020
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artist:John Houston (1930 - 2008) Scottish
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title:Village under the Cliffs
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date created:1962
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:152.50 x 183.00 cm; Framed: 156.30 x 187.00 x 4.10 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1994
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accession number:GMA 3766
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gallery:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
John Houston
John Houston
Born in Fife, Houston studied and subsequently taught at Edinburgh College of Art. He retired in 1989, after having been departmental head of the painting school and director of the post-graduate department. The style of his early paintings was expressive and semi-abstract, but in the late 1960s...
