The artist, teacher, and writer, Ray Vintner, was born 1950 at Steeton, near Keighley. He attended South Craven School and on leaving he began work locally as a sheet metal engineering apprentice. He completed his City & Guilds technical education and continued working in engineering, but in his early 20s had an epiphany moment at work:
I was fed up with the filthy working conditions where I was now working. I looked up a saw a crack in the window above me. Light came flooding through, and I knew I had to change direction. The light spurred me on. Art became my therapy.
Ray had always been attracted to art in general and in particular to the technical drawing elements of his training and so in 1978 applied to Bradford Art College for a place on a full-time Foundation Course in Art and Design. After presenting his portfolio of sketches to the admissions tutors, he was accepted onto the course.
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Drawing by Ray Vintner of metal-workers.
He quickly realised he had found his niche and on completion of the Foundation Course was accepted by Stourbridge Art College onto their B.A. degree in Fine Art and Photography.
After graduation in 1982, he worked in the West Midlands in a variety of jobs, including as a Community Artist. He also began to build his his own art practise and exhibited his artwork at regional shows, including at the Birmingham Art Gallery.
Portrait of the life-long resident of Saltaire, Joan Ferrey (2003).
‘Storm’.
In 1990 he studied for and gained a post graduate teaching certificate from Bolton College of Technology, leading to a teaching post at Keighley College teaching graphic design.
He also became a member of the Aire Valley Art Group, and exhibited his artwork at shows around the region, including at Bradford Library, Cartwright Hall, Bradford Cathedral, and at Leeds Art Gallery.
Kildwick, North Yorkshire.
Over the years, Ray has worked in a variety of art media including pencil, pen and ink, pastels, acrylic, and watercolours; his main stylistic art influences have been Renaissance, Pre-Raphaelite, and Futurist painters. His subjects include landscape, still life, portraits, nature studies, architectural scenes, as well as symbolist collated scenes that reflect his thoughts and responses to his immediate environment, including the impact of Man on nature, as in the artwork immediately below.
His symbolist paintings can also include poetry written to accompany the artwork (see two examples below of Bradford and district).
The Grand-Tour
Lichened stone in damp decay,
Lapse in glow a darkened form,
Amidst the domes of glories past,
A trail of city wilderness.
The Thriving Metropolis
Whilst smoke billows in damp decay
Through snickets of weed in cobbled ruin
Amongst an old Victorian veil
Within a modern void.
Around 2010 Ray embarked on a major project to comprehensively research the life and work of the pioneering local photographer, Alexander Keighley. This led to publication in 2013 of the seminal work, ‘Alex. Keighley. A Pioneer of the Pictorial Movement in Photography’, and the award of a Master of Arts degree in Art History from Leeds Metropolitan University for his achievement.
Ray had been inspired to research Alex Keighley’s life and work after encountering his photography and realising that he had unknowingly lived as a child in a road next to the photographer’s home at High Hall, in Steeton. Alex Keighley was one of the leading visionaries of the Pictorial Movement in photography in Britain, America and Europe, but prior to Ray’s research and publication, his life and work had only been cursorily studied.
I became quite inquisitive and began an incredible journey, or conquest, call it what you will, to further my knowledge of this photographic master. It became a labour of love for me.
Ray Vintner presents a copy of his book to the grand-daughter of Alex Keighley
Ray’s artwork during 2020 and 2021 included his very personal responses to the global Covid pandemic and lock-downs; see the link to the article, My Art’, below.
‘Spirits of the Aire Valley’ (2021)
In 2021 Bradford Museums and Galleries accepted a portrait by Ray Vintner of the late, local historian and librarian, Ian Dewhirst, into their collection.
See also the article: Ray Vintner: My Art
Bibliography
Vintner, Ray (2013) Alex. Keighley. A Pioneer of the Pictorial Movement in Photography. Linkhall Productions (Leeds). ISBN: 978-0-992740207