Doug Hyde

hildren to see how I'm getting on. We have a coffee together and a bit of a chat and then I need to be in isolation again. Dinner is generally ready at 8 but eaten at 9... Late again! Even though technically my working day is now over, I often pay a late night visit to the studio to sit and contemplate my latest piece on the easel. Then it's lights out until tomorrow.'   Doug Hyde's Ideas and Inspiration     Doug Hyde says that inspiration for his paintings can strike at any time, whether through his own emotional response to something, or through observing somebody else's obvious love for another person or animal. Sometimes he will hear a phrase spoken and immediately visualise a picture - he then works around that phrase and uses it as a title for the finished piece. Doug Hyde says 'my ideas are generally spontaneous and mood driven, whether that mood was good or bad! Painting like this gives me complete fulfilment: being able to create an entirely individual and personal piece of work, from visualising the idea in my head, sketching it, painting it and finally seeing it completed gives me complete satisfaction'5 years ago when Doug visited the Tate Modern he was looking at a 25 ft original by Mark Rothko and was completely mesmerised. 'The scale, the use of colour and the simplicity. What power!' This experience provided a defining moment in Doug Hyde's artistic journey; convincing him that less is more, it sent him down the path of simple, bold imagery painted on a large scale, to create maximum impact.   Doug Hyde - 'When I have an idea for a new work I tend to scribble down my thoughts at once, and in my studio I have a box overflowing with these messy scribblings on cards, paper napkins, bits of newspaper, anything that has space for a quick sketch to keep the idea in focus. When I come to start work on something new, I refer to my "ideas box", and then try to refine the image in my head until it is ready to be transferred to the drawing board. I take the initial idea and sketch out the painting, adding ideas to it as I go until it evolves into a picture that works for me, or the picture I imagined when it first popped into my head.In the past I preferred to use acrylics and watercolours, but over the last few years I have fallen in love with pastels! From the very first time I used pastels I knew that this was the medium that would best be able to achieve the effects I wanted to create - I love the contrast between the soft tones and the hard edges' He believes that this gives him much more freedom than any other medium and enables him to use an entirely individual technique. He is able to create the movement he likes in a piece of art and the rich boldness of colour. Because he was initially experimenting with the medium, he has developed a very unorthodox style using his fingers and thumbs to create the work, which he find gives him ultimate control.Doug Hyde states that 'whatever I am doing my work is always there, tucked away in the corner of my mind. I am constantly thinking about it, whether it's the piece I am working on, thinking about the colours I will use or new ideas or new ways to produce my work. Even when I am relaxing it's always there! It truly is a 24 hour job. But I love it. It's my passion; it's my life.Doug Hyde Background... Winner: Best Selling Published Artist at the Fine Art Trade Guild Awards 2005 "The most popular living artist in the UK" BBC TV National NewsBorn in Bristol in 1972, Doug Hyde became aware of his artistic talent at an early age. Throughout his school and college education he concentrated on the technical side of drawing and painting, but after graduation he was in no doubt as to his chosen career, that of a professional artist.Doug prefers to produce his distinctive artwork on a large scale, in order to achieve maximum impact with each piece. He also enjoys operating in plenty of space, thus allowing himself enough physical freedom to express the creative energy that is the key to his fresh, contemporary style. His unorthodox use of pastels applied withfingers and thumbs or even the side of a hand or wrist allows him to create highly communicative and engaging images that make an immediate and lasting impression on the viewer.Recently named as the UK's official best selling artist, Doug Hyde has been featured on television both on the BBC national news and on Channel 4 as well as on local television and local and national radio describing his unique technique and talking about the people and events that inspire his heart-warming images. Inspired by his own emotional responses to life, Doug's intention is to provoke a positive response in others; his success in this aim can be seen not only by the huge impact his work has made on the British and international art scene, but also by the money he has raised for two important charities – “Look Good…Feel Better” and Families for Children” - through the sale of his artwork. The extraordinary rise from virtual unknown to the most popular living artist in the UK has been meteoric, and his stunning original pastels have become genuine collectors' items.