Ray Mutimer is a British

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. Ray Ivan Gerald Mutimer was born in 1937. His parents, Olive and Aubrey, and an older sister, Janet, lived in the village of Gorefield, near Wisbech "Capital of the Fens" of East Anglia. He was educated at Gorefield village school and passed his 11+ to Wisbech Boys Grammar School. His artistic skills and enthusiasm were encouraged, not by the school, but by Bill Wright, who had a signwriting business, and an Art Materials and Photography shop in Wisbech. Ray was proficient in drawing, watercolour and oil painting at the age of 15. Thanks to Bill Wright who was his mentor at that time. Unaware of such a thing as an Art School, Ray applied for a 2 Year Teacher Training Course at Trent Park Teacher Training College, Barnet. The college specialised in Music, Art and Drama. He first had to do his National Service with the Suffolk Regiment from 1955 to 1975. He joined the Intelligence Section, served in Germany and on active service in Cyprus. Reached the rank of Corporal - unusual for national service personnel.

Early career

At college he met his future wife, Christine Spence. He moved to Yorkshire, her home county. After gaining experience in a Leeds school and Christchurch Boys School Harrogate, he eventually became Head of Art and Craft at St Aidan's C.E. High School in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

. Whilst teaching, he continued his own personal paintings and exhibited widely in the North of England during the sixties and seventies. He had two paintings in the Contemporary British Watercolours Exhibition at the Royal Watercolour Society Galleries. He went on to have thirty one-man shows. He was also selected for many annual regional group exhibitions such as the West Riding Artists' Exhibition (

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

), Modern Art in Yorkshire (9 artists) and Yorkshire Artists exhibitions. His first illustrations were cartoon drawings, about teaching, which were regularly published in the ''

Times Educational Supplement ''TES'', formerly known as the ''Times Educational Supplement'', is a British weekly trade magazine aimed at education professionals. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in ''The Times'' newspaper. Such was its popularity th ...

'' and ''Teacher's World''. He became interested in

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

illustration, and after overcoming a series of rejections,

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

used his artwork in the national T.V. school and pre-school programmes ''My World'' and ''Stepping Stones''. His illustrations for traditional and new stories, including some of his own, were shown on the programmes for four years.

Illustration

In 1980, he became a freelance illustrator. Working with Michael Benn Publishing, Ray originated and published educational material for industry. One of its successes was time charts which took the form of a 4-part

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

showing the history of an industry or institution. Each had about 50 pictures blended into a montage. Ray illustrated history Time Charts for The

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

, The Banking Information Service, The

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly ow ...

Pilkington Glass Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, England. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG). It was formerly an independent company ...

(history of windows),

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Limited, trading as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking w ...

and The Atomic Energy Authority. He also designed and illustrated fourteen A1 and A2 posters for similar institutions, including The

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

Books

Postman Pat ''Postman Pat'' is a British stop motion animated television series, animated children's television series first produced by Woodland Animations. The series follows the adventures of Pat Clifton, a Mail carrier, postman who works for the Royal ...

is a TV character created by

Ivor Wood Ivor Sydney Wood (4 May 1932 – 14 October 2004) was a British-French' animator, director, producer and writer. He was known for his work on children's television series. Born in Leeds to an English father and a French mother, his family move ...

and writer John Cunliffe. In 1989 Ray started his first series of 12 Postman Pat picture books called "Tales from Greendale", published by Andre Deutsch Children's Books and Scholastic. These were followed by four books based on new TV episodes. He also did associated activity and sticker books. For

Egmont Publishing The Egmont Group (officially Egmont International Holding A/S; known as Gutenberghus Group until 1992) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishi ...

he did a number of Postman Pat board books for younger children drawn in a simple heavy black line style and computer coloured. Ray drew eight Postman Pat Annuals from 1993 to 2000. Between 1997 and 2005, Ray worked on educational books for Africa and the Caribbean for

Macmillan Education Macmillan Education is a publishing imprint and business which has been owned by various divisions and companies of the Macmillan publishing group and, more recently, the Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a Germa ...

. Covering an enormous range of subjects in 24 books. Some were illustrations for a traditional African story, some were factual, some descriptive, religious, decorative, some picture stories, some comic, some pure adventure. He brought his individual slant to classic

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

s and fairy stories in ''The Award book of Tales and Rhymes'', published by Award Publications in 1999.

Magazines and comics

From 1982 to 1988, Mutimer wrote, designed and illustrated pages of craft "how to make" activities for children. These appeared in various comics, mostly for girls. The longest running was "Make with Mum" in Pepper Street, published by

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Courier (Dundee), The Courier'', ''Evening Telegraph (Dundee), The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Pos ...

. For four years, he drew another TV character created by

Charlie Chalk ''Charlie Chalk'' is a British stop motion animation series produced in 1987 in the United Kingdom by Woodland Animations, who also produced the children's television programmes ''Postman Pat'', '' Gran'', and '' Bertha''. Reception to the show ...

. He drew 2 or 3 pictures strips and the occasional activity page each week in the Postman Pat Weekly Children's magazine published by

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies t ...

. Towards the end of the comic's life he also drew Postman Pat on the covers and inside. He gave the fortnightly "Play and Learn Postman Pat" spin off striking fully painted covers as well as interior picture strips. Working for

Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint (trade name), imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint United States of America, US-produced stories for the United Kingdom, British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British cr ...

from 1992 to 1994, on Rupert and friends and Rupert Learn and Play – weekly children's picture strip magazines, Ray illustrated four page picture stories and activity pages called Bingo's Workshop. Ray also contributed to various

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Publications Children's magazines.

Children's Magazines in which work regularly appeared

Later exhibitions

August 2004. "Original Postman Pat illustrations."

Newby Hall Newby Hall is a country house beside the River Ure in the parish of Skelton-on-Ure in North Yorkshire, England. It is south-east of Ripon and south of Topcliffe Castle, by which the manor of Newby was originally held. A Grade I listed buildi ...

, Ripon. 65 pictures. May 2005. Heild Gallery, Bishop Monkton. August 2005. "Original Postman Pat illustrations." Newby Hall, Ripon. 63 pictures. August 2006. "Original Postman Pat illustrations." Newby Hall, Ripon. 62 pictures. September 2006. “Great North Art Show.” (Group Show.)

Ripon Cathedral The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. Founded as a monastery by monks of the Irish tradition in the 660s, ...

, Ripon. 4 paintings. August 2007. "Original Postman Pat illustrations." Newby Hall, Ripon. 71 pictures. September 2007. “Great North Art Show.” (Group Show.) Ripon Cathedral, Ripon. 4 paintings. December 2007. “Postman Pat illustrations.” '' Preston Hall Museum'', Stockton-on-Tees. (Raising funds for the Butterwick Hospice Extension Appeal.) August 2008. "Original Postman Pat illustrations." Newby Hall, Ripon. 65 pictures. September 2008. “Great North Art Show.” (Group Show.) Ripon Cathedral, Ripon. 4 paintings. September 2009. “Great North Art Show.” (Group Show.) Ripon Cathedral, Ripon. 4 paintings. August 2011. The March Hare Gallery, Ripon. December 2011. “A Little Imagination.” Art in the Mill, Knaresborough. July & August 2012. “Postman Pat and others”

Nunnington Hall Nunnington Hall is a country house situated in the English county of North Yorkshire. The river Rye, which gives its name to the local area, Ryedale, runs past the house, flowing away from the village of Nunnington. A stone bridge over the ...

, York. July, August & September 2013. Assorted illustrations at

Beningbrough Hall Beningbrough Hall is a large Baroque mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England, and overlooks the River Ouse. It has baroque interiors, cantilevered stairs, wood carving and central corridors which run the length of t ...

. Yorkshire. March 2015. Tennant's Garden gallery, Harrogate. April 2015. St Michaels Hospice, Harrogate. (Solo fund raising show.) June 2015. Mercer Gallery, Harrogate. 1 painting, 1 drawing. April, May & June 2016. Preston Hall Museum, Stockton-on-Tees. 28 paintings and 28 illustrations.

Bibliography (partial)

References

External links

* http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/art/Postman-Pat-and-the-look.3011486.jp * http://yorkshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/knaresborough-illustrator-ray-mutimer-opens-up-3839/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Mutimer, Ray English illustrators Living people Year of birth missing (living people)