Oranges In Silver Bowl

Ian Rawling PS | Soft Pastel and Pastel Pencil | 15.5 x 23.5 inches

“I was born in Dereham, Norfolk and grew up mainly in Chester where I spent most of my spare time either playing sport or drawing and painting. On leaving school I completed an Art Foundation course before doing a degree in Industrial/Product Design at Sheffield Art College.

I first became interested in pastels and charcoal when I started pavement drawing to help pay my way through college. On finishing the course I worked as a freelance commercial artist for a few years before getting a job as a greetings card artist with Hallmark Cards where I developed many different styles & techniques on numerous cards and gift wrap. I continued to work in the greetings card industry for a number of companies creating artworks from humorous cartoons through to fine art and detailed illustrations of animals.

The move to becoming a fine artist and exhibiting in galleries seemed like a natural progression and came about ten years ago on seeing the incredible large scale portraits by Chuck Close and deciding that realism was the direction I wanted to go in.

I still live in Sheffield and have a studio in the city centre crammed full of various objects for inspiration such as vintage toy cars, old telephones & various pieces of kitchenalia. I enjoy painting things which may create a feeling of nostalgia and deliberately search both antique stores and the internet for objects which have imperfections as I find it makes them more individual as well as aesthetically pleasing. I’ll often choose subjects that are bold in colour or have strong highlights and will mainly use a neutral background to help the objects and their details stand out and give them even more emphasis.

I became a member of the Pastel Society in 2021 and am a frequent exhibitor at their exhibitions at the Mall galleries, London.” Ian