Having worked as a graphic designer in London and New York, when he retired Paul May began painting for fun. Initially he limited himself to portraits of jazz musicians but in time widened that out to other “heroes”. Since then he has self-published three books of his paintings and shown his work in France and here at Blackheath Halls.
People have said they detect the influence in his work of both Paul Klee and Andy Warhol, neither of which he recognises. As a child, during world War 2 and in the immediate post war period Paul travelled a lot on the railway and thinks he was influenced more by poster artists of the 30’s like Tom Purvis and Cassandre. Their work was still around in the 40s as all resources had been used for propaganda. The magazine ‘Venue’ did a spread on Paul’s work.