Oral history; Interview with Paul Catherall, 2016
Main details
| Reference number | 2016/1731 |
|---|---|
| Description | Paul Catherall talks about his career as an artist, his commissions for TfL and London Transport Museum, the design process and the lino-cut technique. |
| Interviewee | Paul Catherall |
| Dates | 11/01/2016 |
| Collection | |
| Object type |
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| Topics | |
| Completeness | 61% |
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Physical description
Item content Attribute Value Object title Oral history interview with Paul Catherall, 2016 -
Interview summary
Paul Catherall was born in Litchfield, Staffordshire on 29th August 1967. Parents Malcom and Janet Catherall. Father was a quantity surveyor, mother was a housewife and worked in an office part-time. Paul went to school in Coventry. Parents moved to Kidderminster when Paul was fifteen, he attended the fifth year of school and sixth form in Budley. Remembers he was interested in drawing from a very early age, enjoyed sport, played football and rugby but doesn’t remember thinking about what he wanted to do when he grew up for a job. Recalls his higher education; A ‘levels, then did a one year art foundation course at Kidderminster College. Paul went to Leicester Polytechnic and studied in the school of graphic design specialising in illustration for his degree. [05.20.23] Remarks both his brothers were good at art and design and were quite creative. His eldest brother did an art foundation course which influenced Paul. Recalls that careers advice was very different back then. Paul did art, maths and history A’ levels, he comments that his careers advisor was a bit puzzled and suggested a career in advertising. Talks about his degree at Leicester, really enjoyed the whole day of life drawing on a Friday. Mentions his tutor, Ian Newsham who was a freelance illustrator. Recalls he really enjoyed doing quick sketches of people, which is ironic as he is now known for landmarks. Remembers he seriously considered becoming a courtroom illustrator. Lots of freelance illustrators visited during the course, he remembers them quite vividly. All said how hard it was to make a living as an illustrator. [10.10.00] Mentions Paul Slater a well-known illustrator who did a lot of work for Sunday supplements in the 90s, who came in smoking a cigar when he came in to visit the students. Paul recalls thinking it was going to be tough to get to his standard, however he never considered doing anything else. Remembers there wasn’t much opportunity for work experience as illustrators lead quite a solitary existence. Recollects one illustrator (who specialised in natural history) told them if they didn’t have a job to create their own brief and approach potential clients. Comments that ‘pre email’, website and Twitter it was simpler if you wanted to show somebody something as you could get a phone number and pester them. Reflects that although technology made communication simpler it also made it easier to be ignored. Notes that a lot of people on his course struggled to ‘sell themselves’, he didn’t enjoy this but knew that he had to. [14.28.00] Portfolio mainly consisted of figurative paintings with some print making (lino cut and screen printing). Heroes at the time were Paul Cezanne and Edward Hopper. Tutors suggested that his work might be suited to women’s magazines and book jackets as they were quite painterly. Comments that ‘She’ magazine gave him lots of work. Imagined that he would do book covers. Post-graduation Paul moved to London with a group of friends from Leicester. A tutor, a working illustrator arranged a show for some of the students in Covent Garden, some of the students decided to stay in London afterwards. In 1989 Paul got a job working in the toy warehouse at Selfridges to support himself, used to go down to a pay phone to try and make appointments to show his work during work breaks. Mentions the government funded ‘Enterprise allowance scheme’, which paid housing benefit if you set up as a business. [21.24.00] Remembers first job at Nursing Times, first commission was a proud moment. ‘She magazine’ followed, recalls it was a hard slog. Remembers he got a list of local college addresses and wrote looking for teaching work. Paul didn’t have any studio space, but worked from home initially. A friend from Leicester worked for a design company who had some space to rent, he shared a studio with two photographers. [25.24.00] Continued working as an illustrator, his work was mainly figurative. Mentions Phillip Reed at The Art Market was his agent. Got a job via a design company for Marsden’s Brewers redesigning pub signs. Tells how his friend Adrian Burton got him a job doing branded illustrations for Gleneagles Hotel (a golfing hotel) in the style of 1930’s style travel posters. Remembers studying a book of old railway posters for inspiration. Reflects this style of work was a little bit of a lead in to his future work for TfL. [30.32.00] The Marsden’s and Gleneagles jobs ended. Got a few commissions, comments that it can be quite soul destroying and tough just trying to get appointments. Decided to get an iMac which had just come out, he had never used a computer before. Remembers at the same time he went on holiday to San Francisco, saw posters by an American illustrator called Michael Schwab. Remembers thinking it was a dream job, he knew he wanted to do now. [35.25.00] Decided to concentrate on London themed designs during mid1998. Recalls the millennium approaching, mentions the Millennium Bridge and the Dome being built. Comments he always had an appreciation for Modernist architecture, talks about 50’s design of Coventry City Centre. Speaks about London and tourist destinations including the Royal Festival Hall. Decided he would give himself the theme of London landmarks. [40.15.00]Talks of his brother getting him a part time job at The Stage Newspaper. During breaks Paul went out sketching in London, taking photos of landmarks, drawing up designs and producing lino cuts at home. Used to sit covering reception whilst working on his lino cuts. Remarks this work led to working with London Transport Museum. Produced a set of ten prints with a millennium theme including London landmarks; Dome, Millennium Bridge, British Library, Battersea Power station and the London Eye. Late 1999, approached a local gallery called Clapham Art Gallery and secured his first exhibition. [45.23.00] Recalls his first break when an art critic called John Windsor saw his print of the Dome and put it into millennium addition of the Independent newspaper. Recalls he was next to Peter Blake in the article. Explains about the composition and visual dynamics of the Dome print. Talks about three or four subsequent exhibitions with the Clapham Gallery, relating to regeneration featuring more London landmarks including the Old Bailey. [49.17.00]Tells how Michael Walton from the Museum came to one of his exhibitions. Describes his first commission for the Museum called Tate Modern in late 2001, remembers the poster didn’t come out until 2003. Recalls seeing it displayed everywhere on the system. Mentions being approached by Platform for Art who offered him space at Piccadilly Circus to display some work and about the poster used to advertise the exhibition which was posted everywhere. [55.43.00] Reminisces about projects set at Leicester College to design a cover for Time Out, a poster for London Transport and Royal mail stamp projects, and if you ever got one of these ‘you’ve made it’. Talks about the ‘Simply’ series of posters on the network in the early 90’s. Next commission comes in 2006 after Michael came to another exhibition of Pauls work at the OXO Tower Gallery on the South Bank in 2005. Four seasons was commissioned, a set of four prints (a triptych plus one) featuring four views relating to the four different seasons. [01.00.00] Talks about designs for St Pauls, NatWest Tower, Gherkin and the fourth one Blackfriars with an icon in each one. Produced an edition of 10 prints for each design, forty prints in total. Remarks a couple of sets were kept back for a charity eBay auction event held at the Opera House in 2006. Speaks about how pleased he was with the prints. [01.05.00] In 2007 the Eurostar was relocated to St Pancras station, Paul was sent to Paris for two days to research the Eiffel Tower and Pompidou Centre to get references for two more prints. Talks about not being happy with the light at the time and returning to Paris the week later off his own back when the weather was better. Recalls the London Overground commission in 2007. Three images showing the different areas of London that were being linked; New Alpine House at Kew Gardens, The View from Primrose Hill and the West End and Hackney Empire related to East London. [01.10.00] Talks about changes in his technique, semi abstraction, using colour and composition. Remembers that some of the prints were auctioned and some were given to London Overground. In 2010, he produced a print for East Finchley, recalls David Bownes and Claire Dobbin (curators) being involved. A print related to days out and special event days followed, of an old 1940s bus going through the village of Finchingfield near Saffron Walden. Talks about how Michael Walton picked out the village, and how a team from the Museum went out on a day out on a bus to the village so Paul to get reference. [01.15.00] Talks about his posters and prints being sold in the London Transport Museum shop. Moves on to 2014 when he was given a brief for a design featuring the new Routemaster and London landmarks. Speaks about the design process involved. Initially sold in the shop, started appearing on the system spring last year around bus stops. Reveals how the design process evolves, sketching, taking photos [01.20.00] Talks about the importance of light, checks weather forecasts before he goes out. Speaks about drawing from the photos he takes and printing them out ‘photo size’ to work from. [01.25.00] Talks about continuously refining the drawing and how it is a very long laborious process. Discusses the composition process. Talks about lino cut technique, reduction and separate plate processes, working with colour. References original posters which were lithographically printed in 30s, 40s and 50’s. [01.30.00] Mentions trying to recreate those old posters as an original print. Starts with the lightest colours first through to the darkest tones. Speaks about the printing process, mentions ‘Spring’ and the continuous refining process during printing. Discusses the differences between printing and painting methods. [01.35.00]Recollects the process involved with producing the Routemaster set of prints and how long the project took. Notes as a general rule, it usually takes a month per print to do an edition. Tells how he does his drawing and carving at home and prints at an open access print studio called Artichoke Printmaking in Brixton. Comments that he really enjoys solitary aspect of drawing and carving, that printing is a bit more sociable. [01.40.00]Mentions he is currently working on a commission by Daniel Wright at the Lloyd’s syndicate DTW 1991to produce a set of prints of the Lloyd’s building and a landscape of New York for a website. Also working on a book cover for Random House coming out this summer. [01.45.53] Talks about a set of covers he produced for an author called Michael Moorcock featuring three landmarks of London; The Gherkin, Trellick Tower and St Paul’s from the viewpoint of the OXO Tower Wharf. Reflects that his proudest achievement is all the London Transport commissions, particularly when ‘Spring’ of Four Seasons was chosen for the front cover of the London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design by David Bownes and Oliver Green. [01.50.04] Remarks that he still loves the Four seasons set, probably because he did that on his own. Recounts a proud moment recently when he took his children to the Museum and saw his film playing. Comments that the overall connection with London Transport is his proudest thing, the individual images would be the Spring poster and ‘A new view of London, West End from Primrose Hill’. Remembers when the film came out in 2007 doing a question and answers session at The Transport Museum. Recounts there was a film of him, Tom Eckersley and Glynn Boyd Harte and Abraham Games daughter was there. Observes it was a very surreal moment. Says that it was lovely to be part of that tradition, it is there forever, can’t be taken away and he is part of it. -
People involved
Role Person(s) involved Interviewer Jen Kavanagh, 11/01/2016Interviewee Paul Catherall