Darren Reid is an English realist painter born and raised in a county called Derbyshire, a region known as the 'Midlands' in the UK, he’s since moved North to a more rural area of Derbyshire. I discovered his work on instagram and was immediately captivated. The title and backdrop of the painting in question was my hometown of Oxnard, California. A small beach community located an hour west of Los Angeles. Darren says he “visited California with a view to produce a series of paintings, Oxnard was somewhere I visited and wanted to paint.” While admiring his work you can see the incredible attention to detail that goes into each and every piece. From the wind blown palm trees on a sunny day to the stippled rust on top of a tin roof, once you see Darren’s hand or easel in the photo you realize it’s a painting and not a photo.

Darren is self taught, and works in acrylics. He only started painting fairly recently in 2013, so he says he’s self-teaching (rather than self-taught). He says he often gets labeled as a 'hyperrealist' or 'photorealist' painter but, “he doesn’t really follow the principles of those practices, which is to try and replicate a photo image, I just consider myself a realist painter. Although I use various photographs to inform the paintings, they are never simple copies of single images.” Realists paint something from everyday life, it’s about the artist taking what they see and showing us what they are looking at.

Darren tries to push himself with each new painting, and applies what he learns to the next one. If he’s not painting, he finds himself thinking about painting or how to tackle the next challenge in his current work or about perspective painting locations.

To create these brilliant pieces, Darren first spends time at places he’s chosen to paint, getting a feel for the environment. Next, “I'll photograph and sketch, and then work the compositions out back in the studio. I draw the compositions from scratch onto the canvas or panel, using the photos and sketches as a reference, I'll change things like perspective and palette, I'll move things around, remove elements and introduce others to aid the narrative.”

Having only been painting for 8 short years, Darren is still in awe about his own flourishing creative progress. What started as a hobby has quickly transformed into a full-time painting career, something he feels very fortunate to have happened. He discovered this hidden talent rather unexpectedly. He shares: “I'd always had an itch to try painting over the years but just never had the time, it was a voice in the back of my head that never quietened. Eventually I found myself in a situation where my dog became ill, she needed insulin injections every 8 hours for the last 2 years of her life. About 6 months into the injections, I found my social life severely restricted with having to be home every 8 hours so I decided I needed a hobby so I thought why not try painting finally, so I did. It's a little hard to explain but when I sat down with the first canvas, I just found I could paint, it came very naturally. It was a little like a light being turned on, a 'why haven't I been doing this all along!?' moment, after that first painting, they have just poured out of me. After first being spotted by a local gallery, I'm now represented by one of the top galleries in London, JD Malat Gallery in Mayfair, I still have to pinch myself sometimes.”

With the UK currently on full lockdown now, Darren has been able to paint much more, since there’s really nothing else to do. He says, “Covid has been awful in so many ways. For me, it has probably helped in a strange way too, there really isn't anything else to do except paint in the studio all day, in that way I guess it's helped with focus. I did have a trip to the north east of the US planned last year but obviously that's been postponed, I'm currently working on ideas for UK based paintings as travel is so restricted. The restrictions have forced me to go in a different direction with the next few paintings than I'd intended but I'm hoping something unexpected may come from it.”

Currently, Darren has no plans for an exhibition but it's something he’s discussed with the gallery, “I'm fortunate that my work thus far has been selling very quickly so there's usually only the painting I'm working on available so getting a show together is difficult. I'm currently working on an LA street scene painting which should be finished around early March and then I'll be exploring some UK coastal compositions until we're allowed to travel again.”

Scroll down to see some of his amazing work. You can visit his website http://www.darrenreid.co.uk and follow him on Instagram and Facebook to see day to day progress of his incredible work.