Neil Mawdsley

Artist & Teacher

Neil Mawdsley is a passionate artist with many sea-themed paintings. With extensive experience in both creation and teaching, he shares his knowledge through engaging art lessons and maintains a personal diary that offers insight into his creative journey.

As a child I was brought up in a Lancashire Cotton Town with cobbled streets and no trees. We had the corner house in the shadow of a large 8 storey cotton mill. There was always the clackety-clack sound of spinning machines in the day and strands of cotton in the air, but in the evening with no cars, the streets were free to safely play games as everyone new everybody else and what they got up to.

One claim to fame was when I met the Beatles. They were on a parade float at the end of our street. They signed my autograph book. Then a week later I swopped this for some comics.

I went to train as a teacher at St Martins College, Lancaster and later taught disadvantaged children in Morecambe. The class teacher next to mine was the comedian Jim Bowen, who was always good for a laugh. I came to the south west in around 1980 as a teacher of children with severe behaviour difficulties. The job became very stressful after 12 years and I left to work part time in local colleges teaching watercolours and later for many happy years I privately taught watercolours and drawing at the Ashtorre Community Centre, Saltash.

My own painting has always been important to me and I have exhibited at many places in Devon, Cornwall and further afield. Perhaps my most notable tutoring, at Saltash Passage, was with the young Charlotte Smith of BBC Countryfile. I list below where I have exhibited work over the years tutoring or demonstrating to groups.

My shipwreck poster has gone round the world even the Bank of England who bought one for £10!

A few of the places below:

Ashtorre Centre Saltash, Prysten  House  Plymouth, Ibiza, France, St Andrews Church, Plymouth, Barbican galleries, 1,2,3., Thame Oxfordshire, Plymouth Dome, Kaya Gallery Plymouth, Mountbatten Centre, London, Royal Opera House Arcade, Barbican Glassworks, Debenhams, Ballard House solicitors, Derriford Art Group, Shire Horse Centre, Theatres, Colleges, Catchfrench Manor, Hampton Manor, Plymouth Art Gallery,  Homeframe Gallery Plymouth, Plymouth tourist information centres and many more places.