Born in England in 1922, Fred Yates grew up in a suburb of Manchester, a town which has been a prominent theme in his work ever since. The industrial architecture of the town and its street life, people and the commotion and gentle humor of everyday life build a large part of his work.

Working as an insurance clerk before World War II, he served in the Grenadier Guards until 1945 and then returned to Manchester as a painter and decorator. He studied teacher training at Bournemouth College of Art and won a traveling scholarship to Rome and Florence in 1950. Yates taught school for twenty years but resigned in 1969, moved to Cornwall and devoted himself to full time painting. Here, new faces and scenes, as well as sunnier landsc...