Paul McCartney's Works


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Linda with PianoPaul McCartney is certainly not the first musical artist to experiment with another medium of expression, and like those that have come before him, painting offers McCartney another outlet for his drive to create as well as an escape from his celebrity or,"Beatle suit", as George Harrison used to call it. For the last 25 years Paul has been a committed painter, but his work on canvas is something that he kept private for many years.

McCartney’s paintings are full of powerful color and being, and like his music; his art can be playful but visually sophisticated revealing his extraordinarily optimistic spirit. His canvases are intricate and intense created by technique that includes pulling, scratching, and sculpting the paint. Paul’s humor is on display in his work but often juxtaposed against somber imagery with landscapes that exude a sense of place.

According to Paul, he became interested in art at the age of about nine, but only began painting in his early forties. At the age of eleven he used a school prize to buy his first modern art book, including works by Dali and Picasso. Then in his early teens he won an art prize for a drawing of St Aidan's Church near where he lived. In a 1990 painting called 'Home Territory' the church reappears along with his childhood homes in Western Avenue and Forthlin Road.

In the early years before The Beatles became famous, John Lennon and former member Stuart Sutcliffe, who later died from an aneurism in Hamburg in 1962, attended Art college, but Paul didn’t. Although Paul’s lack of musical training didn’t stop him from becoming one of the preeminent songwriters of all time, his lack of formal art study made him feel insecure about his work, and served as an obstacle that took decades to overcome.

During the sixties McCartney became acquainted with gallery owner Robert Fraser and with art critic, John Dunbar, and through their circle of influential friends and aspiring artists, Paul began to expand his understanding of contemporary art. After befriending Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake, Paul would later collaborate with them on the designs for the covers for The Beatles' albums Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. Spending lots of time at the Fraser and Indica galleries, Paul rolled up his sleeves and helped with the building of exhibits taking in all he could to feed the enthusiasm he felt for the medium.

Just as Paul’s music was heavily influenced by American music, Paul’s art work has been influenced by the American school of Abstract Expressionists, an art form which is intensely vibrant and moving, and totally free and unrepressed in the application of paint. Paul influenced the culture of the time, and in turn, Pop Art and surrealism are apparent in his work. Willem de Kooning, a personal friend of McCartney's, and the great influence for Paul, urged him to start painting. For 18 years McCartney had kept his art a secret, fearful that outsiders may criticize his work. In the 15 years that followed, he has completed more than 500 paintings, and since 1983, he has set up studios in America as well as the south of England, where he continues to experiment and explore the medium of painting.