the artist

To introduce myself my name is Paul Wightman (Pad to most friends) was born in Nottingham in 1972. Since my earliest memory my main real passion has been art, many of my early years were spent drawing and painting. After each picture was finished another family member (usually Grandma) would ask me to draw something else, and I was more than happy to oblige.

I spent time art college in the late eighties and specailised in Graphic Design before entering the commercial world and spent 12 years working as a freelance graphic designer under the name Paul Andrew Design (PAD). Whilst working as a graphic designer I worked for some of the UK's biggest companies but always found corporate restraints quite tiresome.

In the last few years the graphics work has taken more of a back seat, although I still work for a few selected clients and I have returned to my original passion of painting. Drawing from my early years at art college I have spent time developing a style of art and re-tuning my technical skills.

All of my work is heavily influenced through working as a graphic designer. I am constantly trying to develop new techniques, styles and inspirations. As an artist my greatest inspirations are the great Renaissance artists through to the modern day genius of Chuck Close.

I now work from my studio in Nottingham where I work with a other creative poeple. I produce work for clients all over the world through the website as well as a wide range of UK clients.

Portraits and figurative art are always at the centre of all my work. The challenge of finding someones character and expressing it in paint are what keeps challenging me as an artist. Producing Pop Art portraits has taken up most of the last year defining and developing a style of painting and the development of technical skills.

A new collection is currently in development and is a movement away from the celebrity portraits. The new works will be all about capturing a single moment in time. Spending many hours travelling the world looking for the instant moment that will sit well on canvas. None of the work is posed and is about capturing a moment that has not been staged or engineered in any way.