Although I did art to ‘A’ level standard I never really considered it as a career option as my real ambition was to work with animals. However, as a youngster I was discouraged by teachers from doing this, who suggested that I think of a ‘real’ job instead. This was reason that I actually ended up becoming a teacher. On doing this job I found that I was not suited to it at all and subsequently left with absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

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One of my earliest and fondest memories of junior school was running from assembly to be the first in the line before double art on a Tuesday morning, as I could not wait to continue working on what I had done the previous week. This early obsession continued throughout my education, and whenever asked what I wanted to do when I grew up the answer was always ‘to be an artist!’ I was extremely lucky to have a fantastic art department at college where I really found my strengths in draftsmanship, particularly in life class.

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Born and raised in North Shields, 1971, my childhood was filled with happy times; from building tyre swings over streams to doing ‘dodgy deals’ in bike parts with my friends. Some days I’d play football for so long that I’d hardly have the energy to walk home; arriving back to my dinner plated up and shrivelled to a crisp- my mam would never mind though.  Memories of my father working in the shipyards (when they were still running) with other proud hard grafting men also sit clearly in my mind. 


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Born in Liverpool 1962
I have always had a passion for painting; I went straight from Quarry Bank Secondary School to study an Art Foundation Course at Liverpool Polytechnic, before successfully applying to study a Fine Arts Degree at Central School of Art and Design in London, graduating in 1984.
. See All Bill Bate Originals

History & Background.
I was born in Taiyuan in northern China in 1967, during the Cultural Revolution, and named Ge, meaning “Revolution”.

As a child I loved to draw. I soon became interested in photography and lacking a darkroom, I managed to print photos in the darkness under my bed.

At 16 I went to Xiamen College of Arts and Crafts in southern China to study traditional Chinese painting. I learnt how to balance the empty spaces and the subjects in my paintings and how to paint the elegant lines of bamboo.

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I come from a theatrical background. I’m half Irish and my childhood home was a place where extraordinary things happened. It was an environment where my brothers and I seemed bound to do something unusual.

I’m very grateful for that.

Drawing was the original expression. I would draw an awful lot, trying to emulate other Artists, to understand how they created what they did; but sketching it was and remained to be, until I found the mettle to use colour. See All Hamish Blakely Originals

A pivotal moment in the young Paul Kenton’s life was a move from his birth place in Derby to the West Country when he was eight years old. As a teenager he learnt to surf on the wild beaches of North Devon and as a keen surfer he has travelled the world realising inspiration for another passion; his art. Now settled in Ilfracombe with his Brazilian partner, Alexandra and two young daughters, Kenton still surfs when he’s not in the studio or enjoying the hectic pandemonium of family life. 

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Painting has been my life for as long as I can remember.  Having won numerous competitions as a child I went on to study Life Drawing at Reading University Art School, then trained as a figurative illustrator at the prestigious Carlton Studios in London. Following my National Service in Paris as a Draughtsman in the Royal Signals (where I still managed to spend most of my time painting) I spent the next few years working freelance, illustrating for national magazines, books and advertising agencies......

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Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1945 Douglas Hofmann attended grade school through high school in his hometown. After high school he enrolled in a business college in Baltimore only to leave after a month questioning his career choice. He started to work at a local department store as a window trimmer where, Hofmann says, he learned about color design. See All Douglas Hoffman Originals

I have been surrounded by the art business for as long as I can remember, my father being Gerald Coulson, one of the country’s foremost landscape and aviation artists. I grew up with oil paintings propped up to dry in various places around the house and kind of took it all for granted. My father worked in a spare bedroom and for a while as a young child I thought all Dad’s did the same.

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One of my earliest memories of being an artist is when I was 6 years old painting with poster paints at the kitchen table while the family were fixed in front of the TV. Using stolen architectural (just finished) drawings of my Dads I would be filling in all the rooms in colour and drawing people stood next to the buildings. I’ve never seen my Dad so upset and angry, but he is now my biggest fan.

See All Richard Rowan Originals