“I was born and raised in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where I lived for the first twenty years of my life. I began to draw as soon as I could hold a pencil and my family quickly recognised that I had some artistic talent. As I progressed through school, my creations captured the attention of my teachers who seemed to admire my canny knack for capturing a view.

I moved to Warwickshire with my family in 1996 where I focused on the development of my technique. It was on leaving Newcastle that I began to appreciate my upbringing – what I had once seen as a concrete jungle now seeming strangely beautiful. Taking inspiration from my and my Dad’s childhood, my pieces have a strong sense of nostalgia, evoking fond memories of a youth that many seem to relate to.

I mainly work in pencil, watercolour and oil on board from my garden studio. My use of colour is minimal, applying splashes only to the figures that play in the otherwise monochromatic landscapes, capturing the joy of youth.

I have thankfully achieved some success in recent years and, thanks to my ever-growing following, my limited edition prints and original art sell out very quickly and I have a waiting list for commissions.

Joining Andrew and Kathryn in this amazing new space marks a new chapter in my career which I am so grateful and excited about. With so many of my originals, limited editions and exclusive editions on display, this is the largest collection of my work anywhere in the country and look forward to meeting you at the events that we have planned in the not too distant future.

Thank you for your continued support – I cannot do this without you.”

The Early Days

“From a very young age, I drew everything that I saw and the world stopped if a tractor or combine harvester came by. After every day out, the first thing I would do is to draw the events of the day, almost as if I was keeping a diary.Once I left school at 18, I did everything within my power to avoid normal employment as I only wanted to paint and couldn’t see why that wasn’t enough! Reluctantly, I took a factory job found by my mother which only spurred me on further. Motivated by my uninspiring job, I painted a series of watercolour pictures of Warwick and self-published an edition of prints from them. Little did I know then that my approach to perspective and attention to detail would be part of my signature style today. After a short while, I found a job in an art supplies shop in Warwick, a vast improvement on the factory work, which exposed me to a world of new materials and different mediums that I was keen to explore.

My Adventures

I loved outdoor pursuits growing up and, after leaving the Cub Scouts, I joined the Army Cadets and gained a reputation for being a keen marksman. However, my mum was tickled that her boy “Couldn’t march to save his life!”

My enthusiasm for the great outdoors led to my family buying an old tool truck from the bus depot my dad worked at, which we converted into a camper van. I helped my dad renovate the van, passing tools and holding planks until it was fit for an adventure. It was used by everyone we knew, as not everyone had cars, all the children in the street would pile into the back of the van for weekend trips, packing in around camping gear and as many bikes as we could fit in.

On one of my first camping trips in Northumberland, as we headed from the campsite towards the hills, a fellow rambler tipped us off to the location of a World War II American plane wreckage that had crashed in thick fog. Naturally, I had to see it. It was the real thing, from the stories my grandparents had told me, I couldn’t believe my luck.

After moving to Newcastle from Gateshead, my family couldn’t afford to wallpaper our bedrooms so my Dad created magical murals that captured our interests, unsurprisingly, I wanted Spitfires and other planes as the backdrop to my treasured Air-fix models!

Relevance Of My Childhood

There are so many nods in my work to my early childhood memories or those of my family. For example, the Ford Anglia featured in some of my work was my dad’s first car bought for just £90! The go kart that appears in many of my pieces in varying degrees of disrepair was spotted by my Dad as a rusty frame which he rescued from a skip, added some new tyres and a lick of paint which turned it into my prized possession.

The various snow scenes came from many enjoyable snowball fights with the other children on my street whilst building the token snowman and igloo. My Dad still has flashbacks of the igloos we built in the back garden melting and leaving the grass in a state far worse than before the snow!

My grandparents, Harry Lambert and Mickey Curran also feature in the names of some of the shops: “Harry’s Plaice” or “Mickey’s Plaice” and “H Lambert’s Sweet Shop”……”Harry’s Ices” also makes an appearance too! Grandad Curran worked in the coal mining industry from the age of 14 until he retired and Grandad Lambert worked in the ship building industry all of his life – guess where I learned my stories for my shipyard artwork?

In so many of my paintings, you’ll see my parents feature as the boy with blonde hair and a red jumper causing havoc with graffiti of “Stevie woz ere”, or Susie, the little girl in the pink jumper. That’s because they were and remain a very important part of my life.

About Leigh Lambert