CAREER

Graham Twyford has always taken pleasure in drawing and painting. From an early age he tried to visualise and illustrate ideas from his favourite books and mythologies, then increasingly became aware of and inspired by the renowned Lakeland landscape so close to home.

After training at Goldsmiths College London, graduating in Fine Art in 1979, Graham returned to Cumbria and has been painting professionally in the Lake District since then. He has exhibited at various venues, including the Royal Academy and is a member of the prestigious Lake Artists Society. As his work became increasing well known he was commissioned to design and illustrate a variety of subjects and his images are now widely reproduced on products from collectors ceramics to jig-saws. Graham works in many painting and graphic mediums though most of his landscape work is in oils on canvas. Taking influence from American and British painting traditions such as the Luminists and Hudson River School, he applies similar working methods in a response to the diverse lake country. Recently he has produced a series of popular paintings and reproductions exploring the atmospheric effects of light in various towns and cities in the north of England. These images not only combine expert handling of figures and buildings but reveal familiar locations in unusual and striking effects of light.

Graham is constantly inspired by the dramatic and varied landscape of Cumbria, the lapping waters of lakes and crystal clear mountain streams, always seeking to capture a sudden transforming play of light over the crags and sweeping fell-sides.