Brian Ayling was born in Portsmouth and took his Foundation Course at Exeter College of Art followed by a B.A. at Birmingham. He has exhibited at the John Moores Open, the Royal Over-Seas League, the Whitechapel Open and has also had a one-man show at the Air Gallery in London. His paintings are in private collections in the U.K., Europe, the U.S. and Mexico. Brian’s landscapes and portraits have a dark, Northern European style, heavily influenced by seventeenth century Dutch art. He worked in the fashion industry in the 1980s and 90s which led him to paint items of clothing and also football shirts because he was interested in how over-invested people could become about these things (himself included). He painted these images on a grand scaled on a flat background to give them an air of religious importance - as modern day icons. Sir Terence Conran commissioned Brian to paint an extensive mural for his state-of-the-art flagship restaurant Mezzo in Soho and Selfridges asked him to create a large scale (8ft x 15ft) painting as a live public event in the London store. The scale and drama of this work prompted arsenal F.C. sponsors JVC and Sega to commission over-sized paintings of football shirts for their executive boxes at Highbury. In 2022/3 one of Brian’s paintings was chosen for the Football Art Prize which toured the north of England including the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield; Sunderland Museum and Touchstones Rochdale. After moving his studio to Hastings Brian found the powerful presence of the sea the motivation for his recent series of coastal paintings. These works which are full of movement and energy contrast with the still and claustrophobic London landscapes.