Picking up a brush:
How I started as an artist
Some artists spend a lifetime planning how they will become painters. Graham Sykes simply picked up a brush. In 2019, his eldest daughter bought him a watercolour set. What began as curiosity quickly became something much deeper. Six years on, painting has become an important part of his life, occupying much of his time in retirement and providing creative fulfilment and a sense of calm.
Before painting, Yorkshire-based Graham spent more than 40 years in senior leadership roles within the automotive and engineering sectors, becoming managing director of Ring Automotive at just thirty. It was a career built on structure and decision making. Painting offered something altogether different: the freedom to trust instinct. That instinct defines both the artist and the man.
Thoughtful, independent and refreshingly straight talking, Graham approaches life with warmth, humour and a willingness to see things differently. Those qualities naturally find their way into his work. Working primarily in acrylics and watercolour, he draws inspiration from the landscapes and still life that first captured his imagination, while increasingly allowing ideas to emerge naturally as each painting develops.
He often begins with photographs he has taken, before giving instinct permission to take over, creating contemporary impressionist and abstract works that are driven as much by feeling as by observation. His process mirrors his personality. A painting starts with a considered foundation before evolving through experimentation, intuition and an openness to wherever the work leads. Some pieces come together quickly, others take time.
For Graham, painting is an escape and a source of fulfilment. It provides space to think, to experiment and to create something that did not exist before. He hopes his work invites people to pause, interpret it in their own way and simply enjoy living with it.
If a painting continues to bring pleasure years after it has found a new home, he considers that a success.