BARSTABLE, Rodney

1953 - ?

Rodney Clive Bastable was born in Mere, Wiltshire in June 1953, son of Kenneth C Bastable, head gardener for Lord Derby on the Stanley House Estate in Newmarket, and his wife Viola J. née Foot, who married at Weynouth, Dorset in 1948. Rodney spent his formative years in a rural environment, which provided the base for his artistic interests and he studied at Great Yarmouth College of Art for his Foundation Studies and briefly at Winchester School of Art. He proceeded to study landscape and portraiture with the works of Michelangelo (6 March 1475-18 February 1564) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775–19 December 1851) were to provide his inspiration. In 1973 he met his future wife, Patricia Clare Evans, a major supporter in his work and they married at Sudbury, Suffolk in 1979 and they had two daughters. Working in a range of media he had many solo exhibitions and a wide range of commissions in both portraiture and landscape and in 1985 he exhibited at the Royal Academy. Since 1978 he has had a balanced working career, which has embraced both inventive integrated mechanical design involving registered designs and patents in the world of fibre optics and low energy, sustainable lighting, while at the same time experiencing success as an artist. Rod uses acrylic for the largest part of he collection, which he considers is a purer media than oil and his works from forty years ago are as fresh as the day that they were painted but on smaller works he use soft pastel on Ingres faced card. Rodney Bastable also teaches budding artists with a varied range of topics, materials, and techniques. He lived in Newmarket but moved to Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk.
Website: http://www.bastablefineart.co.uk

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 39 Stanley Road, Halstead, Essex
1985 741 Christmas Morning - pastel

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Works by This Artist