WAYNE AT T WOOD
portraits of previous tenants, including
the Marquess of Anglesey. “I probably
got paid really badly to be honest but
when you’re 20 and someone says I’m
going to pay you £500 to paint, it’s
great,” he says. “Looking back on it
now, I was too young to have anything
to say myself, so it was good for me to
focus on that illustration work.”
After just more than a decade
balancing two careers, the workload
took a toll. “I basically wasn’t sleeping,”
he admits. “I remember getting a brief
from a client and falling asleep while
he was talking. I thought, ‘This isn’t
very good’. Something had to give.”
The next phase of his career began
in earnest in 2004 when he quit theadvertising industry and set sail in
his newly-renovated yacht, Hitrapia.
He painted mostly watercolours
initially and would spend occasional
days working for boatyards to top up
savings as the couple lived frugally.
“I thought I was going to become a
marine painter but as I anchored up
in these beautiful harbours, the thingLEFT St. Phillip’s –
Afternoon Sunlight,
oil on board,
25x20cm
TOP RIGHT
Birmingham Nights
#2, Colmore
Row, oil on board,
71 x 91cm
RIGHT Dear Friends,
oil on board,
51x51cm
PAGE 18-19 A Quick
Pint on a Sunday
Afternoon, oil on
board, 91x77cm