About Us
Colin Bradley became a professional artist in 1982. Prior to that he had been selling his paintings through a gallery in Gravesend, Colin's home town, these were mainly watercolour scenes of local beauty spots. This was so successful that this prompted his move to Broadstairs. He opened his gallery in York Street, Broadstairs in August 1982. The gallery sold Colin's watercolours and pen and ink prints as well as other works by local artists.
It was on a shopping trip to a local art store that led Colin to discover the pastel pencil medium. He had been asked by a friend to paint a picture of his friend's pet dog. Having tried several times to paint the animal Colin had to give up, the watercolour medium just did not produce the results he wanted.
The pastel pencils however proved to be an ideal medium for producing the realism Colin sought and although he did not know it at the time this encounter was going to dramatically change his life.
The pastel pencil soon proved to be a major art medium and Colin concentrated on learning as much as he could about the pencils, creating his own techniques that were to be the foundation of the medium as it is known today. He became so successful that he was soon asked to demonstrate his skills at leading art shows around the country.
Colin started teaching the pastel pencils in 1987 to a small group of students and found that he both enjoyed the experience and had the ability to enthuse his students, bringing out skills they did not know they had.
Colin is now considered to be the leading exponent of the pastel pencil medium in the UK and was always in constant demand as a demonstrator and tutor. He has contributed many articles to the leading art magazines both here and in the US and has appeared numerous times on television demonstrating his skills with the pastel pencil. Although now retired from running classes, workshops and live demonstrating he still keeps his hand in providing help and guidence through his websites and youtube sites.
He has now rekindled his interest in his love of watercolours and is now enjoying the success he had with this medium all over again. He now has a popular youtube site showing video clips of his watercolour work as well as the exsisting pastel pencil youtube site and website.