Paul Askew was an incredible painter, who documented his travels around the world in stunning black and white observational paintings.
Paul Askew (1947-2023) was a self-taught artist who lived all his life in Minehead in Somerset.
Paul felt ‘different’ from an early age, was dyslexic and possibly on the autistic spectrum. He was certainly neurodivergent and struggled to be part of the ‘ordinary world’. He was a spectator on the world around him rather than a participant.
Paul recreated his cherished childhood holidays by travelling extensively with his beloved dog, in his camper van, aiming to travel on every main road in Europe. On these trips Paul rarely interacted with other people, taking enough food to last for the whole journey. He took photographs, to record the beauty and the ordinariness of the world he saw and human interactions he witnessed, as if trying to capture moments through which he might learn how to become connected with others.
Working from his photographs, Paul developed his own method for painting- carefully choosing, cropping and faithfully reproducing images, in acrylics, en grisaille on board.
In his search for a meaning or a purpose to his life, Paul meticulously recorded his experiences, family pictures, diaries, maps of places he’d been and the difficult thoughts and processes encountered as he sought to understand himself and his place in the world. He lived in the fear that, on his death, these records would be lost, and he would be forgotten- a testament to his belief that he had lived his whole life unnoticed by others. So Paul left all his paintings to his Counselling Service – Lighthouse Counselling – knowing they would be appreciated and sold to raise funds so that they could continue making counselling affordable and accessible to all.
In Paul’s own words:
I strove so hard to mirror the truth. To paint the ordinary world that passed before me. To prove I saw reality with all its light and shade. Using each brushstroke, each change of tone and contrast, as others use their voice.
Each painting was to prove that I had lived and passed through time which provoked in me the truth of my existence.
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