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
