Kevin Holt

I have loved drawing and painting from my earliest days and hoped to become a full time artist when I left school. I began my quest by attending Manchester School of Art for two years but it was more than a struggle to sell my "masterpieces" ! I eventually joined an Advertising Agency in Manchester as an office assistant.

One bright side to this job was that the agency had an art department where real artists spent their days creating illustrations for clients. Whenever there was a lull in my frantic activities, I haunted the art department, ingratiating myself with the artists trying to pick up tips to further my secret ambition to earn a living painting,
Things changed dramatically for me when my brother who was a newspaper reporter said, “Why don't you try Press photography? You like taking photographs, I think you might like it." So I wrote off to my local paper and became a darkroom assistant, and so began my slow ascent to eventually becoming a staff photographer on a National Newspaper, and enjoying the happiest 34 years of my working life.

We photographers used to joke that we were all artists but we painted with light! Now I am retired I paint with oils and acrylics. It's such a strange thing but it fills me with joy. I can't quite explain but the older I get the more I love colour, and nothing delights me more than painting, and wandering around Art galleries and exhibitions to my hearts content.
You never stop learning and I have an awful lot to learn, but it’s such an adventure, photography and painting teach you to really look at the World around you, there is such a lot to see!