Gallery to host a lifetime’s work of remarkable artist

as ‘a gifted, intuitive painter’ and introduced him to the dealers Roland, Browse and Delbanco who sold his first painting to Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten.

After his first show in 1956, the gallery continued to exhibit Sutton’s work in Cork Street for the next 28 years. In 1956 he was also invited to become a member of the London Group. While he was at Slade he met Heather Cooke. They were married in June 1953 and departed immediately after he graduated to travel and live in Europe for over a year, funded by three scholarships including the Prix de Rome.

After painting all the daylight hours for six months in the South of France, Sutton joined Stanley William Hayter who ran the famous Atelier 17 printmaking studio where Sutton learned unusual woodcutting techniques through observation and experiment. Back in London, he took a part-time job teaching etching and lithography at the Slade. He and Heather had four children by 1963, when Pop Art and the American Expressionists caused turmoil in the art world. In 1976 Hugh Casson invited Sutton to become an RA and his reputation began to move beyond the art market.

This led to commissions including designing a tapestry for Shell, one of two made at West Dean

College. He designed a logo for 3i and contributed to the rose logo for the Labour party as well as making wall tiles for a restaurant in a bank in Amsterdam.

The owner of the famous Fulham Pottery commissioned him to paint on pots made by Jean-Paul Landreau, an association that continued for some 15 years, leading to the ceramics in the current exhibition.

He designed stamps for the Post Office, a poster for the London Underground and crockery for the Royal Academy restaurant. A poster and the flag for the academy’s Summer Exhibition led the film director Sam Wanamaker to ask Sutton to design a poster for the launch of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. Sutton became inspired by Agincourt, travelling to northern France to imagine the conflict and painting fantastical pictures reminiscent of Uccello. From 1995-97 the painting of the series was filmed in a television documentary ending with the paintings in the foyer of the Globe. In 1988 Sutton gave up teaching at the Slade. He and Heather moved to Manorbier in Wales where they lived until 2014 when they moved to Bridport. Very sadly Heather died in 2017.

The forthcoming Sladers Yard show will be his fourth major solo exhibition. Mr Sutton says he still paints every day as his way of expressing his appreciation of the world around him.