The Churning Surf – John Falconar Slater

About the artist

Landscape, coastal, marine, portrait, animal, flower and street scene painter. Slater worked in both oil and watercolour.

He was a book keeper at his fathers corn mill before running a store in the diamond fields of South Africa.  Returning to Tyneside in his mid-20s he become a full time professional artist. Slater exhibited in London and Scotland as well as the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; the Walker Gallery, Liverpool; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at the Royal Academy.

In 1912 Slater moved to Whitley Bay remaining there until 1925 when he moved to Cullercoats where he spent his final years; living at St Oswin’s Terrace just off the harbour. He became one of the best known artists working along the Northumbrian coastline and a leading member and president of the North East Coast Art Club.

Many of his paintings of the sea compare with the best produced in Britain in his period, his practice of completing them on the spot, and often in extreme weather conditions, earned him the nickname of the ‘Weatherproof Artist’.  Slater is increasingly becoming recognised as one of the earliest British artists to adopt the Impressionist technique of painting.