Ex-bricklayer Kev Oldham is building a reputation for his work which blurs the boundaries between photography and painting.
Kev, who lives in Amble in Northumberland, creates images using the photorealism technique.
He transfers his photographs on to canvas and then applies layer upon layer of oil paint to produce the finished image. This results in a painting with the characteristics of a photograph.
“It is not a direct copy of a photograph as I can move things and change things,” says Kev, who will be showing 27 of his works in an exhibition titled Streets to Sea at Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery in Alnwick, Northumberland, from September 1 to November 1.
An individual painting can take up to three months to complete and three years of work is represented in the exhibition.
As well as sunsets and harbours in locations like Amble and Seahouses, Kev finds inspiration in hidden urban settings such as back lanes, with their doors of different colours.
He says: “I like the grittiness of the back lanes and the peeling paint of the weathered wooden doors.
“I wander around with my camera and I must have taken thousands of photographs.”
Jean Humphrys, chair at Bailiffgate, said: “Kev’s work beautifully depicts realistic seascapes and urban landscapes in Northumberland creating a wonderful sense of each individual place.”
