About the artist
Paul lives in Eltham, Southeast London and has previously worked within graphic design and, briefly, as a sculptor. Self-taught, he tried oil painting seven years ago for the first time as an experiment. Since then. he has gone on to exhibit in a number of galleries and open calls, including Wells Cathedral, the Mall Galleries, Townhouse Spitalfields and London Lighthouse Gallery.
Paul paints urban scenes around the Southeast in a realist style, mostly at night and on location. His influences include urban photographers such as Ernst Haas and Saul Leiter, artists such as Edward Hopper and noir films such as ‘M’, ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Fallen Angels’. As a result there is a cinematic quality to much of his work, as if setting a scene for a story about to take place.
Artist's statement
For the most part I work in the evenings on site (plein air), as I find it is the most accurate way of capturing light, and I can also engage with local people to get a better understanding of the scene I am trying to capture. In my paintings I explore the relationship between South East London's surviving historical buildings and its increasingly modular and rapidly developing landscape, and different aspects of its diverse community.
Painting at night, reducing a scene to the light from windows, street lighting or bright neon, helps me to focus on a given theme; a shop as a social hub, a solitary commuter or the uniformity of residential blocks that house distinct and individual households.
And the same scene can place the viewer in the role of a participant, or as an outsider; looking in on a community, a household, or a workplace that they either recognise, which they are part of, or which is outside their experience, from which they may feel estranged or excluded.
"It's a neon world. It's a garish, exuberant, possibly empty world if you're not careful"
Christopher Doyle, cinematographer, "Fallen Angels"
Upcoming Exhibitions
ING Discerning Eye 2024, 15 Nov 2024 - 24 Nov 2024
Past exhibitions
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024
London Lighthouse Gallery 2024 Spring Exhibition
Spring Exhibition AKA Contemporary 2024
Wells Art Contemporary 2023
London Lighthouse Gallery 2023 Spring Exhibition
ING Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries 2022
Elevate 04 exhibition at the Shard 2022
Inspire 2022 exhibition, D-contemporary Gallery
Townhouse Open 2022