Profile of The Artist.

Born in London in 1955 of Scottish descent, Adrian Chesterman M.A.RCA was educated at the William Harvey School in Kent. It was here that he first discovered his burning passion for the visual arts. This flame was further fanned at Rochester College of Design and subsequently at Norwich School of Art where he gained an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree and a place at the Royal College of Art in London for a post-graduate, Master-of-Arts, degree course.
Since leaving college, Chesterman has worked in just about every sphere of the two- dimensional art world; Illustrator, portraitist, fine artist, lecturer and gallery owner.

Chesterman the illustrator has worked for just about everyone on just about everything... just about everywhere. Film Publicity art for Spielberg in Los Angeles, to stage-set art for Lloyd-Weber in Frankfurt. Advertising commissions from Singapore Airlines in Singapore, to Busch Beer in St.Louis. From Pioneer in Paris, to Southern Sun Hotels in Capetown, Fruit juice packaging in Kuala Lumpur, to postage stamps in Dar es Salaam. From Rolls-Royce in Derby, to the Mars corporation in Slough... in case you thought this was sounding too glamorous!
From British Airways to Barclay´s Bank, Texaco to Teacher´s and Macdonald´s to Macdonell-Douglas. From DC Comics to CIC Video. BBC to ITV. KLM to IBM. P&O... lots more you know!

An entire book on dinosaurs published this year. Book covers from Jackie Collins to Dick Francis. Album covers from Motorhead to Monty Python. An illustrated music video for the Eurythmics and even an illustrated guitar for Adam and the Ants.

Working with a mixed-media style he developed himself, Chesterman combines inks, gouache and Caran d´Ache pencils with airbrush and scraper-board techniques to create lively and colourful images, with a realism that leaves most computer- generated art standing.

Portraiture is a major passion for Chesterman.
Creating a highly representational portrait that encapsulates the personality and character of the sitter with both sensitivity and empathy is a constant challenge.
The visual resemblance to the sitter is the primary goal for any portraitist to achieve. With the benefit of years of training and experience, Chesterman takes this in his stride. Beyond this though, he imbues the piece with an indefinable magic, a presence and an atmosphere, that brings the portrait to life.
From small pencil drawings of a child's face, to large centrepiece oil paintings of family groups, Chesterman utilises a wide range of media, surfaces and techniques to create a timeless work of art.

Previous commissionees include one European prince, a Captain in the Welsh Guards, a ballet dancer, a couple of Hollywood actors, a few TV celebrities, innumerable children, cats, dogs and a horse called George.

Woven in between the two disciplines of illustration and portraiture has been the basic business of painting pictures. Life drawing, landscapes and still life, all help to sharpen the artist's eye. A variety of media; Oil, watercolour, stained wood, sepia, pastel, etc., all help to hone the artist's manual dexterity, whilst conceptual work helps to develop the imagination.
A happy by-product of this continued exercise is a supply of work to exhibit and sell. Chesterman began this process with an exhibition at Liberty's in Regent Street while still at college and progressed to exhibitions in the Pompidou centre in Paris and the International Contemporary Art Fair in London. Numerous other exhibitions include Spinks, Kensington Town Hall and The BBC centre in London, Lille in France, Mijas in Spain, Singapore and Los Angeles.
As well as a variety of television coverage including 'The Riverside Show','01 for London','Artrage' and other Arts programmes in the U.K. and Spain, and many Arts-magazine reviews, Chesterman has appeared in press articles including the 'Mail on Sunday' the 'Sunday People' and a full-page article in the 'Sun' concerning a portrait of a naked 'TV gladiator' that is better forgotten about...

Chesterman has lectured at Chelsea, Ealing and Wolverhampton Schools of Art, but prefers the solitude of creativity. "Teaching is basically long periods of boredom waiting for the students to make it back from lunch, broken by short flurries of tuition so intensive it leaves you shattered."
Having had galleries both in London and in Henley-on-Thames, Chesterman is left wondering if the English really are a nation of shop-keepers. " Huge overheads, small turnover and small children with chocolate-covered hands...no thanks!"
Oh well... three out of five isn't bad.

He is currently living, and painting like a man possessed, in Andalucia. Spain.

For sales, quotations, commissions and futher details contact adrian@chestermanart.com