Neil McBride - the flying painter
Neil McBride, British visual artist
Just like me, this bio is a work in progress. I have started at the very beginning, which is logical, but please bear
The day she noticed me and I fell in love.
I have come a long way since I first realised that drawing was a pleasurable thing that I could do on the bits of cardboard found around the house at the grand old age of four years old. There were no books in the house except the old risqué novel which didn't really appeal until I started getting that tingling sensation in my short pants a bit later.
There were always a few copies of Dandy and Beano comics to capture my imagination and begin my love of pictures. My older brother was pretty adept at drawing a passable Andy Capp character from the comics but cartooning was not for me.
No. I had more discerning tastes and my own ideas about art even though I did not know what art was. I remember being captivated by big reproduction art prints on the corridor walls. Van Gogh's Boats on the Beach was the one image that triggered my imagination.
My love of music was emerging this age as I listened to classical music on BBC radio while my mother went about the housework. Every morning before assembly classical music would be playing through a speaker in big box in the corner of the hall. The only one I can remember was an uplifting, rhythmic piece called Elizabethan Serenade composed in 1951 by an English composer called Ronald Binge – it was originally called Andante Cantabile but was changed to Elizabethan Serenade to celebrate the optimism of the forthcoming Elizabethan age allegedly.
I never progressed beyond first triangle and backing recorder in the school orchestra which is a huge regret. My taste in music is eclectic without borders. Classical, jazz, Latin, Indian, pop rock, country, the whole gamut of genres.
I first got a taste of the power of painting in junior school when I painted swans on a lake with those awful powder paints and cheap paper that the class were supplied with at the time. The teacher noticed I had a talent for painting and was so impressed with my effort that she dragged me and my picture into the neighbouring classroom to show my brother and his classmates what I had done.
That is the day I fell in love – with art!
Dreamer
I suppose I have always been a daydreamer. That's what artists do isn't it? Specifically I am a Lucid Dreamer; one who becomes aware of dreaming while in the middle of a dream which allows me to control the narrative or environment. I used to have that awful nightmare of falling when I was younger.
Star student
Aged sixteen I really began to fly when I began four years of study at my local art college where I was really in my element living and breathing art and design. I worked so hard that the caretaker had to kick me out in the evenings. But I lacked direction until much later.
Flying Painter
As I have matured I have the Flying Without Wings dream way before Westlife hijacked the idea. Apparently this implies that people like me have high ambition and inner strength so I will buy that!
Quite by accident, or an inner desire to paint my dreams, I started painting landscapes and townscapes from a high viewpoint before I later added crowds of people into the mix. And I have been painting these subjects since around 2006.
There's more
That's all for now folks. I will continue this saga later. I think I have opened Pandora's Box so please let me know what you want to know about me and my art before I bore you to death.
Forthcoming topics:
Passion
Late developer
Charity
Triggering your imagination
In the meantime here is my formal Artist's Statement and Biography for you to read here.
Biography
Neil McBride was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire UK. He graduated from Doncaster College of Art with distinction in Applied Arts. McBride works solely in the medium of painting.
During his award winning career in advertising and graphic design McBride also picked up a Clio nomination for his work on the ‘People Campaign’ for The Halifax bank. This work served to later inform his latest body of contemporary artworks featuring crowds of people.
Since 2004 Neil has developed his art practice full time exhibiting in commercial galleries and select shows throughout Yorkshire.
He was the inaugural artist to show solo at the new Inspired By gallery in Danby, North Yorkshire and has enjoyed particular success in benefit shows in aid of numerous charities including:-
- York Against Cancer at Castle Howard.
- The Great North Art Show, Ripon Cathedral, annually. Neil was the best selling artist 2014. As a consequence he was asked to be one of the featured artists for 2015.
- Art for Youth North, Biennial at Queen Mary’s school near Thirsk.
- Heart Research UK - Anonymous heART Project
McBride has also participated in other juried shows including several times with North Yorkshire Open Studios.
He lives and works in North Yorkshire, UK.
Statement
British artist McBride follows a long line of international graphic artists including Austrian Oskar Kokoschka, French George Braque & Marc Chagall and Spanish artist Picasso.
A diverse range of influences include abstract expressionists like Franz Kline and Pollock. Figurative painters like Francis Bacon and Turner and colourists like Howard Hodgkin and Monet. The list of influences is endless.
McBride continues to develop his paintings featuring crowds of people in life affirming situations which allow him to continually cross over from figuration to semi abstraction; mono to colour; and back again without any loss of spontaneity and continuity. In fact, this body of figurative work started life as abstract paintings which is an unusual direction for an artist to take.
Many traditional painting techniques and methods are employed but the paintings often begin without any pre-conceived idea of an event or narrative, much like the way many writers allow a novel to evolve on the fly. This helps to maintain a level of intrigue and excitement with every piece.
McBride’s crowds paintings are designed to act as triggers to the viewer’s own imagination, often resulting in lively discussions about the narrative content and events portrayed in the paintings.
McBride is continuing to consolidate his participation in high profile benefit shows and increase the exposure of his work in prestigious new markets.
For more information about me and the price of fish just email Neil McBride directly or phone 07548832717
February 2026