Education
As a child during World World War II, Tarttelin was evacuated from Grimsby to Kirkstead, near Woodhall Spa, and attended Queen Elizabeth"s Grammar School, Horncastle. Returning to Grimsby at the end of the war he studied at Wintringham Grammar School, where he was taught by the artist Ernest Worrall who encouraged him to apply for University College London"s Slade School of Fine Artist He was accepted for the school at the age of 17, and studied under Randolph Schwabe and Sir William Coldstream.
Career
He lived on a working farm which functioned with horse-drawn machinery, aspects of which have informed his work since. Others teaching at the Slade during Tarttelin"s time were Sir Thomas Monnington, President of the Royal Academy, and visiting tutors Sir Stanley Spencer, Victor Pasmore and Lucian Freud. Tarttelin returned to Grimsby and, with the exception of Army Service, has lived and worked there since.
Tarttelin has exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art from the age of 18, and has shown work with the Royal Society of British Artists, the Society of Equestrian Artists, and in exhibitions under the auspices of the Arts Council.
He has been a gallery artist at Quinton Green Fine Arts, Cork Street, London, where he held a solo retrospective show. He held other solo shows between 1961 and 1988 and has participated in group exhibitions in the United Kingdom and abroad.
While producing his own work, he taught at Grimsby School of Art where his pupils included actor John Hurt, and Nick Ellerby who has also exhibited at the Royal Academy. Much of Tarttelin"s work has been privately commissioned, including portraits of John Hurt for the film 1984 and Sir Joseph Nickerson for the Royal Agricultural Society, for the Church and the Quorn Hunt, and for racehorses Brigadier Gerard, Grundy, The Minstrel and Arkle.
His paintings are held in collections in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, Tarttelin"s mural Apollo and the Muses hangs in Grimsby Public Library, and a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Grimsby"s Fishing Heritage Centre in 2009.
