Paul Hedley has been painting ever since he can remember, although his style has changed and developed over the years. He was fortunate to have studied at Medway and Maidstone Art Colleges, where he received a thorough grounding in traditional techniques of drawing and painting. With life and art inextricably linked, Paul paints with compulsion, subtly influenced by his environment and daily experiences. He has always admired the work of the great French painters Edgar Degas and Édouard Vuillard and their influence can be detected, to some extent, in his current subject matter of figures in interiors. Paul is technically masterful as a painter and draughtsman; he works with a limited palette of colours thereby allowing him to emphasis tonal values and relationships within the painting. His paintings are emotionally uncomplicated and unpretentious; they are a distillation of a moment in time. As Degas wrote "Art does not reach out. It sums up."
Paul likes to work in natural light, from sketches and photos often listening to classical music. He starts by creating numerous preliminary sketches and when he is happy he starts to lay in tone and colour, generally working in acrylic on canvas. His drawings are produced in a "classical" manner on a toned ground in chalks often combined with watercolour and gouache.
Paul lived in France for a number of years and currently lives in the south west of England. He is married to the artist Dianne Flynn. Paul has paintings and drawings in numerous private collections and has exhibited throughout the country; he currently exhibits in London, the Cotswolds, Yorkshire and New Zealand.
"Born in 1947, Paul Hedley was brought up in Chatham, Kent. He attended Medway College of Art from 1966-68, and Maidstone College of Art 1968-71 and was awarded the Diploma in Art and Design. He received a David Murray Landscape Scholarship in the summer of 1971, and was a prizewinner in the 1976 Camden Painting Competition.
His paintings and drawings show his incredible ability to describe figurative form in the context of good quality and exciting compositions.
His work is in the collections of the London Borough of Camden, Queen Mary College and has also been have been exhibited in many major Exhibitions and Galleries, including the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, New English Art Club, Hampstead Artists' Council, Bath Contemporary Arts Fair and the Rainer Joniskeit Gallery, Stuttgart."