Patrick Procktor graduated from the Slade School of Art in London in 1962. Alongside his friend and contemporary, David Hockney, he was an integral part of the artists, designers and musicians who defined London’s cultural scene in the 1960s and 70s. In 1964, he was included in Bryan Robertson's groundbreaking Whitechapel gallery exhibition, The New Generation, which feature the work of twelve young artists including Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, John Hoyland and Bridget Riley.

Procktor fully embraced painting in watercolour after borrowing Hockney's set, who had grown frustrated with the medium, on holiday in France in 1967. With adept application of its properties, free and fluid combined with his own distinctive eye for composition, Procktor established himself as one of the most gifted watercolorists of his generation.

“Procktor’s most enviable gift is, perhaps, the ability to tell the truth about small things - the fall of light, the angle of a head or hand. They give the best pictures the immediate quality of diary entries.’’
Critic Peter Campbell, Patrick Procktor, The Listener, 18 May 1972