Venton attended the Birmingham College of Art, where he met and married his wife Zena Hitchings in 1951.
In his early years he was interested in Surrealism and had a painting room in the house of Conroy Maddox. His book collection included Salvador Dali's autobiography - later transformed by nature into a surreal wasps' nest after being stored in an old tea chest.
Venton's work was included in the John Moores Painting Prize in 1957 and 1961 when Birmingham City Art Gallery and Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery both acquired examples for their public collections. A Point of Departure was Venton's own phrase.
Venton's paintings were executed in heavy impasto, tirelessly applied and reapplied with a palette knife, the paint surface subtly multi-layered so the original subject matter is transfigured (the Point of Departure). Venton never used to dust his studio - and Zena never entered.
After resigning from the Birmingham College of Art in 1965, Venton started working for the British Museum, and all but stopped painting. He resumed painting in a different style in the 1980s and died in Birmingham in 1987.
