Chris Paling was born in Derby but has lived in Brighton with his wife and family, bar a couple of years, since 1975 when he came down to Sussex University. Since then he’s had a parallel life as a producer on BBC Radio 4 and a writer, having published nine novels and a recent work of nonfiction: “Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library.” (Constable and Robinson).
He has come to painting late in life, although art is in his family. From the age of fourteen, his grandfather was a sign-writer for British Railways. He painted the crests on carriages and locomotives. His great uncle worked in TV and theatre, painting scenery. Chris’s work – drawings and paintings - has been displayed and sold on London’s South Bank, Hoxton, in Lewes and Brighton, where he has had a number of solo shows.
“With my paintings I try to achieve what I do with my writing: to try to evoke an emotion, to tell believable stories.” He inherited his grandfather’s paintbrushes, his great uncles’ love of landscape and now spends more time painting than writing. He works mainly in oils, from photographs he has taken, or photographs that have inspired him.
