Al Hayball (Alan Hayball)

Original paintings by Al Hayball

Al Hayball is inspired by the coastal landscapes around his Dorset home. He then produces paintings in a naive and unique style. The buildings he portrays in his paintings are recogniseable by their 'turret' style roofs that have become quite a trade mark of his. The creatures he paints aren't exactly how they look in real life but more a look of how they might feel inside! The paintings let the animal's personality shine through.

Al sees life full of vivid colours and his landscapes are bright and cheerful, working mainly in acrylics on canvas. His images depict a land of beaches, coves, green fields, and caricatured rolling hills not exactly as they appear in real life, some with quirky characters appearing in the most unlikely of settings!

These are snap-shots from a time when the land was full of smugglers and whymsical characters, imagined from childhood memories of long hot summers at the beach.

Hayball says: "The beauty of painting is that, unlike a photo, you can portray a scene how you imagine it might have been, or how you would like it to be, when really the truth is a little less colourful!"

Apart from their factual based origin, the paintings are also inspired by the 'smuggling stories' told to him by his wistful Bristolian Grandmother, tales of quirky looking fishing boats and men who were holed up in coastline caves, to unload their booty!

Al has always drawn, from the time in his school days when he would doodle in the margins of his exercise-books, to the evenings in the smokey old pubs his dad would frequent on 'darts' night, where he would sit in the corner scribbling 'caricatures' of all the pub dwellers. However it wasn't until later he had success as a full-time artist. Leaving school to become a bank clerk (!) at Barclays International, Poole, Alan Hayball became a printer at Abbey Life before joining a graphic-design studio as Production Manager. He found this experience invaluable in realising how the art world worked.

He is self taught and had always avoided art college being worried he might fall into a way of working, that was like everyone else, having always striven to develop a unique style. However in an effort to learn more, latterly, he did attend Bournemouth Art Institute where he did an HNC in Illustration and Graphics and a BTEC in computer studies.

Having only touched the surface of his imagination and ideas, Al Hayball is excited about the possibilities that lay ahead. He says "I've never believed in paintings being dark and dismal. Colours are there to be used, not dulled down!"

South Seas - Painting by Al Hayball