The man behind the work

About Paul

One of the great forces in the contemporary art world, Paul Kenton has brought the cityscape to the centre of public attention with his own take on abstract impressionism: bold colour, dripped lines and fast, gestural marks. He is one of the UK’s best-selling artists, yet he stays humble about the work, driven by passion and vision rather than sales. Here’s the story behind it — where it started, how he paints, and why.

From a set of paints to full-time

The story so far

Paul was born in Derby in the late sixties and moved to North Devon with his family at the age of eight. Growing up in an isolated town, far from the contemporary art world, he still knew what he wanted: while other children wanted to be pilots or doctors, he told a teacher he was going to be an artist — and meant it. At twelve he won a national colouring competition, and the prize, a set of paints, felt like the first proof he was right. The same years gave him a second lifelong love: the sea, and surfing. The rhythm he found in the ocean is the one he paints with — instinct, reaction, timing and style.

When art school turned him down, Paul went to work in the drawing office of a local engineering firm. It couldn’t put the fire out. He kept painting in his own time, began to make a small living on the side and gave work to charity events, holding on to the belief that he would one day succeed as an artist, often in the face of ridicule and doubt. “I’m forever grateful for the few important people that believed in me and my passion — you know who you are.” In the mid-nineties a Prince’s Trust grant gave him the opening to paint full time, and he took it, travelling to absorb the atmosphere of the world’s great cities — London, Paris, New York — and living the streets, harbours and bridges he would go on to make his name painting.

His films have been watched hundreds of millions of times, his work has reached tens of millions of people and has hung in important galleries, and it is taught on the UK school curriculum. Many of his stylistic inventions now inspire developing artists finding their own place in contemporary art. After a lifetime of painting, Paul believes his journey of artistic discovery has only just begun.

View all original paintings

Paul Kenton, a rucksack on his back, raising a camera to photograph a street of stone buildings — Paul photographs a street to work from back in the studio.

Paul Kenton sketching at an easel on the shingle of the Thames foreshore, the Millennium Bridge and City of London towers behind him — Sketching on the Thames foreshore beside the Millennium Bridge, London.

Black-and-white photo of Paul Kenton on a New York subway platform under an Exit 69 Street & 2 Avenue sign, beside a mosaic of a saxophonist — Waiting for a train on the New York subway.

Black-and-white photo of Paul Kenton gazing up at tall buildings on a busy New York street, a chalk-covered hoarding behind him — Looking up at the buildings of Manhattan.

Paul Kenton photographing Times Square at night as yellow cabs blur past the lit-up Paramount building — Photographing Times Square at night.

Black-and-white photo of Paul Kenton sitting at a table in a busy New York restaurant, hands clasped — A break between sketches in a New York restaurant.

Black-and-white photo of Paul Kenton from behind, photographing the Brooklyn Bridge from a railing on the waterfront — Photographing the Brooklyn Bridge from the East River waterfront.

Black-and-white photo of Paul Kenton sketching at an easel among rocks, with One World Trade Center and the Manhattan skyline behind him — Sketching Lower Manhattan from across the East River.

Paul Kenton seen from behind, sitting on a grassy clifftop painting in watercolour, finished sketches laid out beside him above a beach and turquoise sea — Painting in watercolour on the clifftops above a sandy cove.

Paul Kenton smiling on a woodland path in the Swiss mountains, pine trees and a misty peak behind him — Walking in the Swiss mountains, 2022.

Paul Kenton in a cap and sunglasses standing in front of a range of snow-capped Alpine peaks — High in the Swiss Alps, 2022.

Paul Kenton sitting on a mossy rock outcrop, steep grey mountains and glaciers behind him — A pause on the rocks with the Alps behind, Switzerland, 2022.

A watercolour sketch of a mountain in blues and purples on a pad, with a paintbox and a case of pens laid out on slate rock — A watercolour of the mountains, painted on the spot in Switzerland, 2022.

How Paul works

The studio

Paul works out of a converted railway building near Ilfracombe, where he still lives with his family, a stone’s throw from the coast that started it all. He refuses to be tied to any one material. In acrylic he works without fear, building thick, dense layers and shaping the composition with straight edges and tools — a screwdriver does as much work as a brush. His works on aluminium are finer and more delicate, with oil paint at their centre, often lightly dripped with energetic flurries of flicks. Both share one thing: dynamic, captivating scenes that stop a passer-by. He’s drawn again and again to reflection and to light late in the day, chasing the last of it across glass, steel and water. Some of his methods he’ll happily explain. Others he keeps to himself.

“I’m an incredibly physical painter. I think that captures the energy of the places I paint. Nothing gets created without effort and action — the city is a perfect example of this.” — Paul

Anyone who has stood in front of one of his paintings will understand. Whether it’s one of his well-known cityscapes, a mountainscape, an abstract or a plein air study — or the seascapes, motorsport and odd flash of pop-culture retro he also paints — each work carries the mood of its day, capturing how it feels to stand in the magnificence of the world around us, humbled by forces and monuments far greater than ourselves.

Paul Kenton leaning over a large blue cityscape canvas laid flat on a long table, working into it — Large canvases are worked flat on the studio table.

Close-up of Paul Kenton's hand dragging a metal scraper across a dark blue cityscape painting — A scraper does as much work as a brush.

Close-up of a hand holding a long brush against a blue and black cityscape canvas — Fine details go in last, by brush.

Paul Kenton in a blue T-shirt painting a city skyline at night on an easel, in sunlight against a stone wall — At the easel, working into a night-time city scene.

Three side-by-side photos of Paul Kenton in a checked shirt and woolly hat painting a black ink cityscape on paper, the middle one in black and white — Three moments of an ink and watercolour sketch.

Paul Kenton in a paint-covered jacket drawing outlines on a large white canvas, pots of yellow and red paint on the table in front — Drawing out a new painting on a white canvas.

Paul Kenton smiling at the camera as he paints a black and white Tower Bridge canvas, a paint-splashed table in front of him — Paul at work on a Tower Bridge painting.

A pair of black boots spattered with paint standing on a floor covered in layers of coloured paint — Paul's studio boots, painted as much as the canvases.

A row of Paul Kenton's colourful cityscape paintings on wooden easels in a bright room with a stone wall and large plants — On display in the studio.

Alan joining a length of black moulding at the corner joiner, with racks of moulding behind him — Alan hand-builds every frame in our framing workshop.

Alan and a colleague holding a large cityscape on aluminium upright in the framing workshop — A large piece on aluminium on its way to the framing table.

Close-up of a black floating frame, with a narrow gap between the frame and the edge of a cityscape on aluminium — The black floating frame leaves a narrow gap around the piece.

Commissions

Commission a Paul Kenton original

Your city, your scale, your story. Paul takes on a small number of private commissions each year — working directly with collectors from first concept to finished piece.

Paul Kenton in a paint-spattered smock and cap, talking among tropical plants

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Studio

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Updates from the studio

Painting in progress and behind the scenes.

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