Untitled No. 64

John Virtue is one of the UK's most distinguished painters with career museum shows at Tate, St Ives , Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut and the National Gallery, London, amongst others. His work is represented in the public collections of Tate, Arts Council (UK), Courtauld Gallery (UK), LondonTowner Art Gallery (UK), British Museum (UK), Walker Art Gallery (USA) and Queensland Art Gallery (Australia). Many private collections include Dimitri Goulandris and the late David Bowie. Since graduating from Slade School of Art, Virtue's expression has been deeply influenced by painters of the past - C17th Dutch landscape painting, Samuel Palmer and JWMTurner in particular - through to Jackson Pollock and Japanese abstract calligraphers, such as Sengai Gibon and Ike Taiga.

Working in monochrome (as he has always done) John's current series of acrylic on canvas paintings square up to the immense infinity that is sea, sky and weather. They are squeezed from a ritualistic process of observation and drawing by walking to the North Sea at Blakeney Point, Norfolk, on the same beach, on the same day, at the same time each week.