Paul Slater – Illustrator Innovator

Many of you will know about Paul Slater, without knowing you know about him. Over the past 20 plus years, his artwork has graced the Daily Express, The Times and the Saturday Times, illustrating the words you read, and no doubt creating a familiar sort of ‘face’. Paul’s inimitable style is quintessentially British, with echoes of WWII propaganda, Pythonesque wit and childhood reminiscence, sprinkled with a touch of Magritte – a fine blend. Conceptually, we may well have found the source of Banksy’s inspiration – compare Paul’s bird festooned soldier in ‘Summer Visitors’ or the cricketer in ‘The Ballad of Ashley Green’ to Banksy’s grenade bomber or the soldiers painting a peace sign. Paul did it first.

Paul is a Northern soul, originally hailing from Burnley in Lancashire, where he began his journey into his talent, later travelling South as a young adult in the 1960’s. Pursuing his education via Maidstone Arts School and later at London’s Royal College of Art, where he got in on the strength of his portfolio, he used these years to develop his style. It was whilst tutoring at Harrow Arts school though, that he met a colleague, Life Drawing Arts Master Sam, who lived in Chesham. Having not joined any arts societies, Paul instead chose to live near his colleague, whom he’d visited here, to forge connections and networks of his own. Cut to 32 years later and Paul remains here in Chesham with his wife Sophie and his daughter Elizabeth, a film-set designer.

It was in the 1990’s when Paul’s career really took off. Initially illustrating Giles Coren’s restaurant reviews ‘Eating Out’, in the Saturday Times, he became the longest lasting contributor. Not only this, being simultaneously commissioned by rival newspaper the Daily Express, he was essentially his own biggest adversary. If you consider what a tough and competitive industry illustration is, that is no mean feat…

Studying Paul’s paintings and drawings, you can sense his wilful mischief beaming out from the canvas. I personally love the business man in a bowler hat, where you can just make out the word ‘BOLLOCKS’ written above it… I would have liked to have known Paul at school. He describes his artistic essence as “Sardonic Tomfoolery”, mixing warmth and humanity with a little bit of darkness. His work also inspires a sense of homeliness though, safety through the familiarity of the strong colours that you might remember from Ladybird books, or Enid Blyton book covers.

Paul’s approach is not to think too much – “trying to give it meaning stops it being good”. Instead, he starts with a thought, and then paints what comes out and the meaning creates itself. All from imagination and little reference. A painting is incomplete however, until it has a title. ‘The Footballer’ was repainted 20 times as it was just not right, until it struck Paul that it was “Billy Eckerslike” staring out at him. Only then was it finished.

Whilst still nurturing his sketchbook, nowadays Paul tends to paint larger canvases, currently trying out acrylics on linen – the intriguing and brilliant “three drunks” being the work on the easel (another favourite here). Tucked away in his modest shed-come-studio, Paul’s paint splattered space is a mini gallery of its own, filled with an assortment of curiosities, gnarled and twisted tubes of paint, props and masks, and the cat breezing in and out to say hello.

Though lucky enough to make a living out of his art, Paul is not entirely motivated by money “if you can predict what people want, it becomes boring – you have to push boundaries”. Success it seems, comes with the balance of experimentation alongside conformity. “Some people buy safe stuff so it’s ok to put on their wall, while others want to shock or show status”. Being considered one of the UK’s leading Illustrators has not gone to Paul’s head. Instead he is simply a creative mind, living to do what he was born to do – “painting is a life force, it’s the only thing I’m good at”.

What would he have done had he not made a living through his art? “Most likely I would have been a felon or a carpet fitter”. How fortunate for us that he evaded both.

Visit paulslater.me or the Medici Gallery.co.uk to see more of Paul’s work. Or, for the highly recommended viewing in the real world, you can view examples at the Alexander Miles Gallery, by Saint Katherine’s Dock. If you’re ever in Australia, Heston Blumenthal recently commissioned Paul to produce a massive piece of work, which now hangs as a jigsaw backdrop to the food, in the Melbourne Fat Duck, where each diner gets a piece to add to the jigsaw, until it is complete.