The Man Who Paints Football: The story behind artist Paul Town's debut book
Paul Town pictured at Bradford City's Valley Parade
Heritage Unlocked are delighted to have collaborated with artist Paul Town on his first book The Man Who Paints Football, now available to pre-order and released next month. Learn more about the story behind the book here…
The rich football culture at the heart of Britain’s local communities is gloriously celebrated in Paul Town’s first book, The Man Who Paints Football. The Bradford-born artist captures the ‘beautiful game’ in all its glory, evoking the high-octane atmosphere of historic and iconic grounds – such as Hampden Park, Highbury, Old Trafford and Wembley Stadium – always at moments of high drama.
The book cover for The Man Who Paints Football, now available to pre-order at www.heritageunlocked.com/shop
In his thrilling canvases, the packed terraces are a sea of colour, family memories are being made, folklore writ large. This is the pageantry of football, the vision of a great artist, who researches meticulously but also releases his own powerful imagination to capture the authentic and definitive image, giving tangible expression to the transcendent wonder of the occasion.
Sumptuously illustrated with over 100 works of art, the book is both a personal story and one for everyone who has fallen under the spell of the game and taken a team to heart. The sense of excitement and passion, hope and expectation shines out of each. Many feature night matches, the floodlights gilding fields of glory, under dramatically colourful skies.
They draw on his intimate connection with the evolution of football over the past few decades. Few artists, if any, can boast such first-hand knowledge and deep understanding as his, even if they have stood on the terraces as he has, and lived their own club’s dreams and heartaches.
He fell in love at an early age not just with the game but with the artistry of it, the period architecture of the grounds, the poster-bright football strips, the scarves, the banners, the programmes. These continue to provide the vibrant palette for his artistry but early, deeper experiences clearly coloured his vision.
Bradford Park Avenue has been a source of inspiration for Paul Town
As a child he explored the abandoned ground of Bradford Park Avenue and keenly felt the sense of loss to his community. In adolescence he was in the crowd at Bradford City’s Valley Parade, in 1985, when 56 people lost their lives in the fire. One of the deadliest tragedies in football history, the scene is seared across his memory and he has coped with the trauma by painting the old and new grounds many times, finding some consolation in that what he witnessed contributed profoundly to the transformation of football stadia around the world.
Over the past decade or so Paul has been able to turn his passion for painting football scenes into a profession, and this first book showcases his work over this period, which draws huge inspiration from - and is a celebration of - Britain’s unique miscellany of football grounds, ancient and modern, large and small.
Elland Road features in the new book
Not surprisingly, his oil paintings have become extremely popular with the global audience of football fans and have pride of place in homes and club boardrooms. He has exhibited widely and his acclaimed Hampden Trilogy featured prominently at the home of Scottish Football. The world of publishing quickly appreciated the emotive power of his images which have appeared in glossy magazines and journals and proved ideal as cover images of football-related books.
Paul Town pictured at The Hampden Trilogy exhibition
This first book, graced by a foreword from the doyen of northern football commentators, John Helm, provides an intriguing insight into the lost world of football, through the personal vision of an artist on a unique journey which began in childhood. Now it’s possible to see his paintings not just as individual works of art but in a representative collection.
The Man Who Paints Football, by Paul Town, priced £19.99, is published by Heritage Unlocked and is available from bookshops, galleries, online retailers and from the publishers’ website at www.heritageunlocked.com/shop/themanwhopaintsfootball.
Thanks to Dr Andrew Liddle for assistance with this article.