Paul Raymond Seaton

Paul Raymond Seaton (b. 1953) is a British artist whose still life paintings and other studio works have earned him critical recognition within the contemporary British art community. After graduating in mathematics from Exeter University in 1980 and passing through brief stints at teacher training, busking, and stately home minding, Paul, as he has recounted, "discovered the error of my ways and turned to paint brushes, silence and tranquility." This decisive turn from mathematics to painting has proved a durable vocation, and his mature practice has produced a body of work marked by quiet observation and a careful attention to the small pleasures of studio painting.

Since 1984 Seaton has exhibited at the Whitechapel Open, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Mall Galleries, and the Royal Academy, participating steadily in the important British exhibition circuit that has structured serious contemporary artistic careers in the United Kingdom. His first one-man show was held at the Dive Gallery in Muswell Hill, and this early solo presentation launched a substantial exhibition record that has continued through the following decades. His paintings are held mostly in private collections in Europe, the United States, and Australia, and he lives and works in London.

Seaton's work has attracted critical notice from leading British art writers. Richard Dorment, the art critic for the Daily Telegraph, reviewed the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in June 1992 and singled out Seaton's contribution for particular praise, writing: "This year I found only a few paintings that really made the heart leap, and there was something fresh and observed about a little still life by Paul Raymond Seaton." This kind of thoughtful notice from a critic of Dorment's standing helped confirm Seaton's position among the contemporary British still life painters whose work rewards the sustained attention of viewers drawn to careful, quietly observed painting.

Seaton continues to work from his London studio, producing pictures marked by the same combination of observational care and painterly warmth that has characterized his practice from its earliest years.