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| Inhabitants Awaiting Arrival Of Armed Men |
1911 - 1993
A landscape painter, born at Plumstead, London, the son of a Warrant Office in the Army Educational Corps. He was educated at Wallington Grammar School and was taught art by Tom Nash, a painter and friend of Gilbert and Stanley Spencer. Pittuck left school at 17 to become a clerk at New College, Oxford. His developing interest in drawing and painting was encouraged by Sir Muirhead Bone. The sympathetic college authorities allowed him time off to attend classes at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (1931-39) under Percy Horton and Jack Townend which at that time had its studios in the Ashmolean Museum. His contemporaries were Kenneth Rowntree, Humphrey Waterfield, Colin Hayes, Tim Gibbs, Anne Spalding, Robin Noscoe and Lawrence Tonybee.
Following military service in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in World War II (entailing postings to Northern Ireland and Malta) he was enabled to return to study full time at the Ruskin via the aid of an ex-serviceman’s grant. His tutors included Eric Ravilious, Barnett Freedman, Allan Gwynne-Jones and Percy Horton.
He began 25 years teaching as Head of Art at Barnard Castle School in 1948. He believed that as a teacher of art he should also be a practicing artist and was a member of ‘The Four Teeside Painters’ formed 1951. His works feature in the permanent collection at the Ashmolean.
Exhibitions Include:
RBA; Laing AG; Newcastle; Shipley AG; Gateshead; Barnard Castle