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Winner: Best Selling Published Artist at the Fine Art Trade Guild Awards 2005 

The most popular living artist in the UK” BBC TV National News 

The show-stopping cityscapes of Henderson Cisz have established his international reputation as one of the finest artists of his generation and a virtuoso of urban style. Born and brought up in South America, Henderson now lives in London, but still loves to travel the world painting the drama and diversity of modern metropolitan life. He has formed an intense and affectionate artistic relationship with many of the world's most iconic cities, and his arresting interpretations breathe life into the elegant boulevards of Paris and the imposing skyscrapers of New York. Voted Artist of the Year by the UK's galleries, Henderson is also the holder of the coveted John Solomon trophy, which is awarded annually to the artist judged to have made the greatest impact on the art market; a testament to the fact that his work has been both successful and immensely influential in the world of fine art. He has been the subject of a beautiful fine art retrospective and biography, 'City Living'.

Stephen Hanson has worked as a professional artist for 30 years, after leaving college in Batley, Yorkshire in 1982, Stephen has illustrated and painted for a living in the book publishing and film animation industry for all of his working life. Stephen Hanson has also illustrated numerous books which include (Nelly The Monster Sitter) by author Kes Grey, and new covers for Enid Blyton’s (The Secret Seven), as well as writing and illustrating (Froobie Pink) and the (Night Noises). Stephen’s animation feature film and TV credits include Roald Dahl’s (The BFG), (Dangermouse), (Balto), and more recently as a visual development artist on the film (Arthur Christmas), and the eagerly awaited (Pirates) from Aardman Animations in Bristol. Stephen Hanson is more famous for his work with Aardman on their creation of Wallace and Gromit.

Barry Hilton allows himself a quiet chuckle at the thought of being nominated for an award. It’s in the ‘Best Newcomer’ category and, at 70 years of age, he might be considered a shade long in the tooth. After all, he has been painting since he was in short trousers. However, rules are rules and the Lancastrian must go into the novice section of the Fine Art Trade Guild awards as it’s the first time he has been nominated. Not that Barry minds. The buying and selling of paintings and the awarding of prizes only serve as a distraction from his all-consuming passion. ‘I just like to paint. That’s all I want to do,’ he says. Barry (his full name is Barry Hilton Pannell but an agent persuaded him to shorten it) was a high-flier in the chemical industry with a stressful job that required him to spend much of his time jetting around Europe and North America. But painting was always his first love and he reached the stage where he realised he would have to try his hand as a professional artist or risk spend the rest of his life regretting it. ‘It was a leap into the unknown,’ he says. ‘When I told my boss, he said I’d never make a living.’ Happily, Barry’s striking works have been warmly received by the art-loving public and he is now working harder than ever. ‘It’s been a hard slog - I’m not very good at promoting myself. I leave that to other people. I have always been commercial but I’ve played it low key. I’m not a self-publicist.’

Rolf Harris television series Rolf on Art, which was filmed between 2001 2007, was what led Rolf back to his first love – painting. The second show was on Degas and Rolf went to Windsor racecourse where he did a Degas – style painting of a groom leading a horse and jockey. Whilst Rolf was working on the piece, the producer came up and said to him, ‘you’ve blown it – it doesn’t look anything. ‘Rolf told her to go ten yards back and look again. ‘She did and she then understood what Rolf was doing- impressionism.

Arthouse Blog - Information About Rolf Harris - His Adopted England.

During Rolf Harris’s first months in London he was painting and as Rolf put’s it larking around and singing, and in 1953 he started art school, but found to his disappointment that they really didn’t teach him anything substantial. After 2 years he drifted away, but then was lucky enough to bump into Hayward Veal, an Australian Artist that he had always admired hugely. Hayward Veal invited Rolf to a two week course at heatherly’s Art School in London although Rolf confessed he had no money to pay for this. Rolf Harris set out to impress Hayward Veal but it all went wrong, his paint was too thick, everything was going brown and horrible. When Hayward saw what was happening he told Rolf to start again with a proper canvas, one brush, and one colour, a rag and some turpentine.

Rolf Harris had a happy childhood growing up in Western Australia. There were always pencils and paper in his parent’s home, and drawing came naturally him. When other children were still drawing stick figures, Rolf was doing more detailed pictures – arms and legs with two lines enclosing the shape of the limbs and real faces with real features. Rolf’s primary school teacher told him that one day he would become a fine artist, and kept all of his drawings. He was also lucky enough to have a wonderful art master at High School, Frank E. Mills, who gave Rolf the encouragement and taught him an enormous amount about art. With Jack Campbell, who worked for the education department, he organised some Saturday morning art sessions for gifted children in the metropolitan area of which Rolf attended. Anyone with talent was welcome to come along and simply mess around with paints supplied, and eventually they had their own exhibition. When Rolf Harris was 16 he had his first solo exhibition in Perth, showing a collection of watercolours and a few oils of local landscapes. All of Rolf’s work sold and he held another show the following year.

Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow in 1973 where he was raised and educated. As a child Faulkner was encouraged and guided by his father, an electrical engineer, for whom drawing was both job and pastime. He went on to Glasgow School of Art graduating in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art. Faulkner is however, largely self-taught and from the start of his professional career chose to follow the difficult and demanding path of figurative painting.

Faulkner’s love of sweeping desolate landscapes, where his figures take refuge from the modern world echoes the notion of sublime as defined in 1757 by Edmund Burke: “The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.” The protagonist of Faulkner’s paintings – an idealisation of the painter himself – appears lost in the vastness of nature. He, nevertheless, has not simply been placed there but has clearly made his way there by choice.

Fabian Perez came into the world on November 2nd 1967, born in Buenos Aires Argentina. During His teenage years Fabian was fascinated with martial arts, and fine arts, he then dedicated himself to study both of these disciplines, Karate helped to influence his character giving him great discipline as well as opening him up to other forms of art. Much of what Fabian learned through his Eastern studies influenced his paintings. Fabian was brought up in the small but dynamic Argentinean city of Campana, 50 miles outside the capital. From the age of nine he felt at home holding a paintbrush, producing surprisingly mature portraits of family and friends.