Contemporary Fine Art @ The Piper Art Bar

fter studying Illustration in Manchester somewhere in the last quarter of the 20th century, I found myself in the enviable position of being represented by one of London's top illustration agencies. Having�already established my name through commissions such as painting Rowan Atkinson for the publicity material for his first serious acting role in the West End,replica watches opening credit illustrations for a Granada Television drama and packaging design for Sainsbury before�leaving college,�I was soon working for top publishing houses including�Penguin, painting the covers for titles such as John Mortimers'�number 1 bestselling Rumpole of the Bailey series .�After a couple of years though, I found myself increasingly frustrated with the constraints of illustration. I branched out into the world of Murals and specialist paint effects, working all over Europe and exporting work as far as Japan and the USA. Clients at this time included the likes of Harrods, Fortnum and Mason and the Walt Disney Corporation. Whilst I found this new combination of outlets a lot more varied and fulfilling, I found that I was spending more and more time pursuing my own personal work.� Over the intervening years I have found that the balance of my work has swung a full 180 degrees from almost entirely commercial, to now being entirely personal. The work I do now�would probably most accurately�be described as 'hyper' realism. Although I often use photography to capture transient lighting conditions, I have absolutely no desire to produce a faithful reproduction of the photographs themselves. Instead I�use the images as reference points for the creation of a heightened, idealised reality. I do not restrict myself to painting still lifes, but in treating every image as a frozen moment of reality, I would say that even my landscapes and portraits have the essence of still life within them.