The quintessential Yorkshireman, whose love of his native moors and coast was indelibly embedded in his art, William Dealtry was among that small elite of northern landscape painters who captured the essence of the landscape. His moors were real, unsentimental, brushed by wind and rain and peopled with nothing but the occasional group of sheep, or a countryman out with his dog.

But if the North York Moors were his first love, then the Scottish Highlands were undoubtedly his second. His father-in-law had been a fisherman at Gairloch in Wester Ross, so William got to know the area well. His love affair with the highlands lasted throughout his life. He spent every holiday there, in latter years renting a cottage at Ardnamurchan, overlooking the isle of Mull.

In a Dealtry painting you seldom get what you see. He painted swiftly to capture that fleeting impression, the essence that said it all, and because of this artistic licence played a large part in his work. If you wanted an accurately recognisable picture of a particular place or scene, then Dealtry was not your man. If, on the other hand, you wanted a real work of art that captured the spirit of the land, then he was.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Watercolour Society, the British Institute and at the Pannett with the Fylingdales Art Group. He also held three exhibitions in the Cotswolds.