Collection: Paine Proffitt Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Paine Proffitt is an American-born artist living in England, best known for his sporting works and for his depiction of the "working man's life". Proffitt moved to Philadelphia when he was fourteen after spending his early years in Saigon, Beirut and Kenya as a result of the work of his father - novelist and war correspondent Nicholas Proffitt. Proffitt studied illustration at the University of Brighton in 1994 before moving to England permanently in 2001. Paine Proffitt cites some of his influences as being Chagall and Picasso and while not ascribing himself to any one art movement in particular, feels that surrealism, cubism and contemporary art are the best labels for his work. The influence of Fred Otnes has also been noted, with this being most apparent in the collage work Proffitt produced under the pseudonym of Nicholas Hudson Paine. Similarities to L. S. Lowry have also been recognized due to the northern working-class themes of some of Paine Proffitt's works.

Paine Proffitt has began to focus more and more of his artwork's theme around s ports, and especially football, has been a major inspiration to Proffitt's artwork: 'Football is central to who we are and where we come from'. This sporting theme has seen exhibitions such as that at Twickenham for the Rugby World Cup in 2007 as well as commissions for football program artwork. West Bromwich Albion used Proffitt's work for their program covers throughout the 2011-12 season, this culminating in the July 2012 exhibition at The Public. Stoke born pop star Robbie Williams is purported to own several of Proffitt's pieces, as do cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish after the city council presented them with two commissioned paintings during the Stoke-on-Trent stage of the Tour of Britain in September 2012. An early Proffitt piece took top lot in a 2011 UK auction alongside work by Govinder Nazran, Sir Sidney Robert Nolan and Reggie Kray. In a departure from his football-related work, Proffitt most recently exhibited a series of Gothic fairy tale inspired paintings in an exhibition entitled Broken Sleep

"I hope my work celebrates the beauty and art of life and love, and the emotional connections we feel", Paine Proffitt says. "In my paintings, I've wanted to touch on our feelings for who we are, where we come from, and what we care about."