Paul Taggart
Paul Taggart Artist : Author : Presenter : Producer
Creating works of art has been Paul Taggart’s passion from an early age; a passion that has fuelled his life’s work as a Professional Fine Artist of over fifty years standing and continues to do so. Nothing gives Paul greater pleasure than to be at his easel, it is his natural home, where he belongs. A brush in his hand, six tubes of paint and his world transforms; although the same can be said if you were to place a piece of charcoal, or lead, at his disposal and any surface on which to draw.
Based in the Northern Highlands of Scotland, from where he reaches out to a worldwide audience through his online studio; Paul Taggart’s work encompasses not only Masterworks created for collectors, along with his illustrated ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’, but also his pleasure for sharing with like-minded folk across the globe, who themselves seek to pursue the art of painting.
For Paul Taggart, life as a Professional Fine Artist is not merely about passion, it also requires commitment, discipline and focus. Above all, it needs to be in the ‘blood’ and for Paul it is in his very heart and soul. Second-best simply will not do, which is why every dedicated ‘collection’ that he works on is given his undivided attention. Which is what his private collectors understand and appreciate, that to purchase a Paul Taggart original, is to purchase part of Paul’s ‘being’; for that is what has been dedicated to any individual work of art that finds itself hanging on a collectors wall.
From the early days of ‘solo’ exhibitions and ‘mixed’ shows in galleries, Paul Taggart’s work is now sold or commissioned privately, through occasional, ‘invitation-only’ Private Views and Private Viewing by appointment.
The quality of light lies at the heart of every artwork created by Paul Taggart, his signature feature - it figures in all of his Masterworks. When executed using traditional painting techniques in his preferred medium of Oils, the result is works imbued with a richness and depth that absorb the viewer - whether a large scale composition, or a miniature.
Chronicling the world in which we live, has formed the nucleus of Paul Taggart collections, for that world is full of interesting events, lives, accomplishments and undertakings; many of which are disappearing into the mists of time. Following the subject of each of these collections has taken any number of years, not to mention the time taken to produce the resultant works of art. There have been collections centred on theatre companies and musical sessions; country pursuits and activities; traditional artisans and craftspeople; community events and charitable works; not forgetting meaningful landscapes, cityscapes and village life.
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Paul Taggart’s passion for creativity extends to a love of sharing his knowledge and developed techniques with fellow artists, be they those who paint for pleasure or as a profession. Consequently, when online video platforms became available, he wholeheartedly embraced this new technology; which enabled him to share his knowledge and techniques in far greater detail than he had been able to do thus far, through his thirteen published tutorial books and painting magazines.
artworkshopwithpaul - the umbrella for all of Paul’s tutorials, in which traditional techniques are key, features an ever-growing index of over 700 easy-to-follow, yet detailed, online video tutorials, available from his official accounts on Vimeo, or Patreon. Comprehensive box-sets, in which Paul’s fully-narrated demonstrations cover Oils, Watercolours, Acrylics, Pastels, Colour Mixing, Masterclass and more besides – everything required for those starting out, or for those wanting to develop further, whether it is for personal fulfilment or professional improvement.
Paul Taggart firmly believes that anyone who can hold a brush or pencil can learn to draw and paint – if only they are shown how. Even the relaxed pleasures of scribbling will yield wonderful results and the simple act of adding a wash of colour is the first step for budding artists
Even those who already paint should be encouraged to discover new ideas to help them develop their painting abilities further, whether it is in investigating other media such as watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels, inks and gouache, or in manipulating familiar painting tools in a completely different way.
It is also Paul Taggart’s personal belief that professional artists such as himself should not keep the joy of drawing and painting to themselves; instead they should share it with those who are starting out on the road of self-discovery through this most fulfilling of pursuits.
Throughout his professional career Paul Taggart has been story-telling through works of art, in which he creates paintings that capture a never-to-be-repeated, ‘moment in time’ – depicting subjects that share an insight into the essence of life.
Yet, something else has also occupied a very special place in his heart, emanating from a magical experience in his childhood - a happening that he never felt able to explain at the time, which finally, can be told in ‘Paul Taggart’s Elphen Chronicles’.
As sole author and illustrator of the ‘Elphen Chronicles’, Paul Taggart harnesses his creative expertise and traditional painting techniques to portray the Elphen, in works of art that visually chronicle their lives and depict the worlds that they inhabit.
These works of art, along with Paul’s stories, form the nucleus of a multi-media project that brings together the three principal creative strands of art & design, writing and music in different forms – as published volumes, video and audio versions, hard copy and online digital formats.
For his first Elphen Chronicles book, published privately in the 1990’s as a Limited-edition hardback, Paul turned to watercolours to illustrate his written account of the quest lead by Lacewing and Starfire, witnessed by Artimus Glin, the itinerant artist; whose grandson Zand inherits his passion for art, as now recounted in the Paintbox Tales.
His second, ‘Webstrand, the Tooth Gatherer’, fifteen years in the writing and painting, started out in watercolours; but soon Paul realised that this epic Elphen tale had to be chronicled on a grand scale. Nothing less than large-scale oil paintings would suffice. A further one-hundred and twelve Storytelling Vignettes that accompany the story throughout are wrought in an oil painting technique, which Paul uniquely developed, specifically to do justice to the Webstrand chronicles.
For the latest suite of short stories ‘The Paintbox Tales’, Paul sought to evoke his childhood experience, as seen through the lens of his younger self, when all about seemed larger than life. Turning to miniature Masterworks oil paintings, allowed Paul to reflect that memory of his fascination with minute detail.
