Fred Mayor was one of the truly original and innovative members of the Staithes Group. He spent his early years analysing relevant elements in the work of artists whom he admired and experimenting with a variety of styles. By the time he moved away from Staithes he had developed his own unique vision as an artist which he went on to explore and develop.In 1886 he enrolled at the prestigious Academie Julian in Paris where he studied for four years and enrolled for a further session in 1892. During his first period of study in France, shortly after his twenty first birthday, he had his first painting, ''Autumn'' accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.Between his two sessions at the Academie Julian he shared a studio with Frank Brangwyn in Chiswick and while he was in Paris he met Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Richard Sickert who remained close friends for the rest of his life. Moving to Amberley he lived close to another artist friend, Edward Stott, and when he w...