Chris Cyprus took up painting after developing testicular cancer.
The illness changed the direction of his life as enforced inactivity made him start to observe and consider the importance of the things around him. Among these was the role of allotments within the community, the self-reliance it represented, the skill learned and passed down from one generation to another and the support people gave each other.
He started painting the everyday scenes he saw and has developed an international reputation for his acute observations of the life he sees there. A regular on both radio and television gardening programmes
Chris says
“When I grew up here everybody knew you.Now it’s a commuter town and I know more about the blokes on the allotment than I do about the people next door.”
This year Chris was commissioned to design the poster for National Allotments Week which began on 6th August.
Beverley and the surrounding area is no stranger to allotments with demand at an all time high and new allotments being widely developed.
Chris shows work around the UK and currently has some of his paintings on show at Creation Fine Arts in Beverley.
As a result he has given ten signed and numbered copies of the poster to the gallery. Whilst Chris’s work is in demand as investable art at up to £5000 this does present an opportunity to own something unique for just £20.
The photograph shows Nigel Walker, owner of Creation Fine Arts, with a poster in front of Chris’s work “Fag Break”.
