User:Maggpye/Royston ecroyd

Royston Ecroyd
Royston Ecroyd is an artist who was born in 1938 in Accrington, Lancashire, Great Britain, to a working class family. Inspired by the world around him, he started drawing at a very early age. His pictures were populated by the characters around him - in town, leaving factories, at market - all involved in every-day tasks. The world of illusion and film also inspired Royston's work.

After the age of ten, he began to win prizes for his paintings. At the age of 15 (1953), he entered the Burnley Art School (principal: Harold Thornton). After finishing his studies at Burnley, he won a scholarship to the Slade School of Art, University of London (painting and sculpture), where his principal, William Coldstream, and his personal tutor, Claude Rodgers, were a part of the Euston Road Group.

After two years teaching in Lancashire, he moved to France. In the town of Fécamp on the coast of Normandy, he met Jef Friboulet, and was a frequent visitor to his studio (1964 to 1966). Moving on to Paris, he continued painting while teaching drawing at the EAB (Ecole Active Bilingue) from 1972 to 1977. In October of 1977, Royston became a salesperson at the Montparnasse FNAC where he specialised in classical albums and contemporary music. He stayed there until 11 July, 1994. In 1999, he moved to Normandy in the region of the Eure, 80 km from Paris. It is here that he has set himself up in his current studio.

Royston starts his drawings with pen (ink and water). There is no preparation or preliminary pencil sketching, and he might add touches of colour with pastels. When working with oils on canvas, his style becomes more expressionistic, depicting a harsher reality. His artwork is shown periodically in exhibits around Europe, mostly in France.