Early years and education Salt was born and brought up in the
Sheldon district of
Birmingham. His father was a motor repair garage owner, whose stepfather in turn had been a signwriter painting stripes on the bodies of cars. As a young boy Salt was encouraged to draw and paint, and at the age of fifteen he gained admittance to the
Birmingham School of Art, where he studied from 1952 to 1958. From 1958 until 1960 he studied at the
Slade School of Art in London, where he was particularly influenced by the work of the English artist
Prunella Clough and American
Pop Art figures such as
Robert Rauschenberg. since when he has exhibited widely worldwide. Salt's technique and style developed throughout the early seventies. Under the influence of
John Clem Clarke he increasingly used an
airbrush instead of a spray gun, with
stencils to obtain the detail and precision he sought. His subject matter also broadened to include
pick-up trucks and
mobile homes, with the use of his own photography encouraging a deliberately informal
snapshot-like composition.
Return to England Salt returned to England in 1978 and settled in
Bucknell, Shropshire. His work in England has largely continued to feature American scenes, however. Salt explained: "I think in a way it [America] has that removed quality I quite like, and also the light is much sharper, you get incredibly clear light, much harder, it's much softer in Britain, it doesn't quite have that edge – edge in every way, in light and subject matter." During the 1980s Salt moved away from using
acrylic paints to using water-based
casein, largely for health-based reasons rather than as a question of style. Salt continued to live and paint in Shropshire until his death on 13 December 2021, at the age of 84. ==Work==