Edwin V Forrest British 20th Century Abstract Winter Landscape Oil Painting Art

Edwin Forrest (1918–2002) was born in Tranmere, Birkenhead, of working class parents who were unable to provide their gifted son with a formal art education, though he was taken regularly by his father to the galleries of the Lady Lever in Port Sunlight and the Williamson in Birkenhead.

Not able to accept an offered place at the Slade, he studied at the Laird School of Art and the Liverpool School of Art. He trained as an ecclesiastical and lettering artist in his grandfather's painting and decoration business.

In 1958 Forrest was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy and he continued to follow the British tradition of landscape painting. He exhibited at the RCA in Conwy and most of the major towns and cities in England and Wales.

His work is to be found in collections in Britain, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, USA, Canada and South America.

The major sources of his inspiration were the constantly changing skies of the Wirral, the industrial scenes of Birkenhead, and the powerful, dark, Welsh landscape.

Edwin Forrest was never marketed by private gallery owners, preferring to be his own judge and to paint to his own tune.

This painting entitled February Snow was likely produced during the 1960s / 70s. It bears a label on the reverse for the Wirral Society of Arts Exhibition held at the Williamson Art Gallery - where Forrest also worked for some time.