Artist: Chris Collingwood

Chris has produced a wealth of impressive paintings from the Napoleonic War, American Civil War, English Civil War, and a variety of Portraits of Great Military Leaders, He also has produced superb paintings of Pirates, a particular favourite of his. Chris studied at Berkshire College of Art 1966 - 1970 and then worked for Halas and Batchelor as a background artist. In the golden age of book cover illustration Chris made the Gunslinger, Crow and Herne series his own. To this day the shelves of high street booksellers are full of his work. Perhaps his best known popular pieces are in the now famous Jorvik Centres paintings which form the focus of the exhibitions promotion and won a travel industry award. In recent years his best work has been paintings, such as SPQR, Anne Bonny, Mary Reid and Calico Jack Rakam and Blackbeard in Damnation Seize My Soul. His super realistic style, using oils, brilliantly reflects the techniques, passion and depth of the old masters. He has a particular love of portraiture, which his portraits of Wellington and William of Orange certainly reflect, along with others from the English Civil War, his love of the subject. He is also fascinated by the awful romance of weaponry and war. Chris uses traditional Dutch paints made today, as in 1664, and is meticulous in his research and attention to detail, so scarce in our modern throw away society. Sir Anthony Van Dyke, William Dobson, Sir Peter Lely and Fortunio Matania played a vital part in his formative years. He also is much influenced by Meissonier and De Neuville.