The Artist
Stacey Manton is a Stockport-based professional artist and painter
following an age-old tradition of figurative painting. His work
is based on life in and around Greater Manchester, though he
has a considerable portfolio of work done in Spain. Stacey's
background is in design and advertising and he spent over ten
years in the industry as a commercial illustrator.
He first
began painting in oils at the age of seven and was preoccupied
throughout his early years with being able to paint like the
old masters like Velazquez, Goya, Rubens, Rembrant, Vermeer,
Chardin, Hogarth, Manet and Constable. Stacey says:
"For
as far back as I can remember I've held a fascination for
drawing and painting people. Wherever I go I'm looking for
the same things, the characters in the street, in the doorways,
at the bus stops, or on the benches. These are the people
I wanted in my pictures …my vision is to record aspects
of life as I see them without contrived sentiment and without
taking a moral stance. These paintings are about the observation
of the reality of human existence in our society".
The focus
of his work is the people we see everyday, in the park, in a
bar, in a window or on a wall.
For Stacey
these are the people who make a place special and these are
the people which he goes to extraordinary lengths to capture
in his pictures.
He uses
various means of procuring the photographs he works from, using
hidden cameras, 'drive-by' photography and even offering booze
or fags in return for a snapshot. The subjects being the overlooked,
the old, the frail, the drunk, the destitute, the disenfranchised,
or the plain comical.
A full gallery
of his work can be found on his own website at:
www.staceyart.co.uk
Stacey can
be contacted by email at:
stacey@staceyart.co.uk
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