C'est votre passion, Monsieur!

The first major publication about this popular artist. A journal of Fred Yates’ progress through France between the years 1992 to the present day, using his own words from letters, journals and other correspondence. Lavishly illustrated with over 70 colour images. Born in Manchester in 1922, Fred Yates worked as an insurance clerk, before serving as a Grenadier Guardsman in the war. He taught art for many years, then moved to Cornwall, where he started to paint full-time. His idiosyncratic paintings are easily identified by their brilliant vibrant colour, often squeezed straight from the tube. The apparent naïve style masks a sure skill in creating his world of Manchester city life, Cornish villages and French landscapes, populated by his familiar cast of characters. Fred Yates moved to France in the early 1990s where, now in his mid-eighties, he continued to paint as obsessively as ever until his death in 2008.