HISTORY: Paul Swattridge
My interest in graphic art began in the early 70's watching my grandfather and uncle paint signs and print t-shirts in the garden shed.
!n the mid 80's I followed my uncle, Colin Seal to Florida to study sign painting. There was a sign painting renaissance happening back then and a publication called Signcraft catalogued and consolidated all that was great in the American sign painting world. There was a great fraternity among commercial artists at that time and I had the good fortune to work alongside some very talented craftsmen and women, among them: metal sign fabricators, neon glass blowers, paste up artists, sandblasted sign makers and dozens of sign painters; all of them where unique characters and all of them making things by hand.
The first vinyl lettering machine came out around that time and by the late 80's hand painted signs were in sharp decline. For more on that story please see the excellent 'Sign Painters' documentary trailer below. Retraining in another area of the decorative arts seemed the only way to survive. So I returned to UK and Colin Seal went on to invent an advertising phenomenon that eventually went global: bus murals. See You Tube clip below. (apologies for poor quality).
!n the mid 80's I followed my uncle, Colin Seal to Florida to study sign painting. There was a sign painting renaissance happening back then and a publication called Signcraft catalogued and consolidated all that was great in the American sign painting world. There was a great fraternity among commercial artists at that time and I had the good fortune to work alongside some very talented craftsmen and women, among them: metal sign fabricators, neon glass blowers, paste up artists, sandblasted sign makers and dozens of sign painters; all of them where unique characters and all of them making things by hand.
The first vinyl lettering machine came out around that time and by the late 80's hand painted signs were in sharp decline. For more on that story please see the excellent 'Sign Painters' documentary trailer below. Retraining in another area of the decorative arts seemed the only way to survive. So I returned to UK and Colin Seal went on to invent an advertising phenomenon that eventually went global: bus murals. See You Tube clip below. (apologies for poor quality).
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Inspired by these early experiences I enrolled on an HND course in Historic Decorative Crafts at the Lincolnshire College of Art and Design and DeMontfort University. After college I worked as an artist in schools teaching mural painting and went on to write and teach a course in colour theory and harmony for the National Curriculum College.
After working as a ceramics technician at DeMontfort University I moved back to London to work as a sub-contractor gilder and specialist decorator for some of the most renowned contractors in the city.
I've been fortunate to work on many interesting projects and been lucky enough to work in New York, Paris, Germany, Sardinia and Kuwait.
After working as a ceramics technician at DeMontfort University I moved back to London to work as a sub-contractor gilder and specialist decorator for some of the most renowned contractors in the city.
I've been fortunate to work on many interesting projects and been lucky enough to work in New York, Paris, Germany, Sardinia and Kuwait.
Paul's CV | |
File Size: | 44 kb |
File Type: | doc |
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