An Art Explosion!

Last night we hot-footed it over to Manchester at the personal invitation of explosive portrait artist Paul Oz.

Paul was holding his latest exhibition at Generation Gallery and as we are hoping to have some of Paul's work here at The Acorn he issued an invitation to join him!

When you see his work up close you realise why he styles himself as 'explosive'.

'Mr Bean'

The Paul Oz style involves massive quantities of paint on impressive sized canvases applied in such a carefully thought out slapdash manner that upon close inspection you would wonder how anything could take shape... however when you take a step back the colours and the shapes meld together to reveal some of the strongest portrait work you will ever see!

Paul specialises in celebrity, people whose characters have become an iconic part of our world, interwoven with our memories. People of sport, of music and of television. People who, without trying, have become a part of our lives.

Of the 18 canvases that were displayed last night there were characters as wide-ranging as Ed Sheeran, Spock and Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker, Lewis Hamilton, the legendary Muhammad Ali and long-time childrens favourite Miss Chatterbox!

'Spock' 

As a massive Formula 1 fan, Paul finds that these personalities feature regularly and indeed one piece which caused alot of attention last night featured Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna capturing the moment when Mansell picked up Senna at the side of the track and carried him on the wings of his car back to the pit at the end of the race. An iconic moment which many fans will remember...

'Senna and Mansell'

Whenever possible Paul likes to gain the approval of the celebrities he paints and will usually make a point of contacting them for signature or other endorsement. The painting of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was autographed with 'Big Love' and Paul explained that he had recently donated a painting to one of Jamie's favourite charities.

We would like to thank Paul Oz and the staff of the Generation Gallery for their warm welcome and thank you for hosting such an entertaining evening!

We are very excited and look forward to seeing some Paul Oz work here at the Acorn Gallery soon!

'Lewis Hamilton'