Although Paul has been painting his entire life, it was not until late 1997 that he finally became a professional artist and his focus became purely on art. The following year he staged a retrospective exhibition called 'All In A Life's Work’ and this featured hand selected paintings he felt represented his artistic journey up until that point.
His painting ‘Passengers’ was of special ... read more
Although Paul has been painting his entire life, it was not until late 1997 that he finally became a professional artist and his focus became purely on art. The following year he staged a retrospective exhibition called 'All In A Life's Work’ and this featured hand selected paintings he felt represented his artistic journey up until that point.
His painting ‘Passengers’ was of special significance, as it was the first time he had combined one of his characters within a street scene backdrop and marked a turning point in Horton’s art. Ultimately all his paintings from then on was based on what he saw as ‘street life,’ either people’s current daily lives or reflecting on Britain’s past industrial age. (Incidentally, many published British artists like to look to the past within their limited editions prints: Alexander Millar, Leigh Lambert & Mackenzie Thorpe spring to mind)
The ‘working man’ character that appears in many of his industrial limited editions does reflect a bygone era but he says could equally be any town or city today.
Having lived his informative years in Birmingham (UK) in the 1960s & 70s, this gave Horton rich memories to draw on that he feels both defines him as a person and gave him a robust work ethic. As many of you know when Paul goes on tours to galleries, his number of appearance is larger than any of his contemporaries!
Paul Horton’s iconic ‘Homes & Hearts’ tour from 2002 was memorable for him as it effectively launched him to UK Galleries and customers. He absolutely loved meeting the public and continues to draw huge artistic inspiration from such gallery appearances.