Neil Buchanan returns

The Neil Deal comes to West Midlands

with “the story of childhood”

Neil Buchanan, the creator and presenter of two times BAFTA winning Art Attack raised several generations of young people on his TV art show. With six million children tuning in for his cartoon drawing, papier maché creations and awesome Big Art masterpieces, the award winning artist has recently swopped the TV studio for his art studio and created his debut collection of signed limited edition fine art. Neil Buchanan’s HOPE STREET is being shown throughout the spring in Jamie Leigh Fine Art gallery, Rubery and ONE magazine was delighted to catch up with ‘the Art Attack Man’ during a recent visit to Rubery to launch the new collection.

Neil Buchanan describes HOPE STREET as his first collection of “grown up” fine art which depicts ‘the story of childhood”.

Asked about his inspiration for HOPE STRET, Neil told One Magazine: “Having worked with children for the best part of two decades I thought how appropriate it would be to paint ‘the story of childhood’. My HOPE STREET is not a place it’s a state of mind – and it’s a very nice place to escape to. The paintings depict a simpler time when children were free to play outside, before traffic clogged up the streets and cyberspace banished play indoors.”

Whilst Neil says he embraces the many positive elements that new technology and social network sites have brought to today’s generation of children, it was the darker side of the technology that inspired him to start painting HOPE STREET.

Three years ago Neil Buchanan switched on his laptop whilst on holiday with his children to find 69,000 messages of condolence pouring into a Facebook site entitled ‘RIP Neil Buchanan’, following his ‘death’. Marooned in a remote, mountain hideaway in Wales, in a mobile phone black spot, it took several days before the popular and much loved presenter of Art Attack was able to contact his family and shocked elderly mother in Liverpool to reassure them that he was alive and well.

Out of these dark and sinister rumours, Neil started questioning the excesses of modern technology and its negative influences and began to record his own childhood memories in Liverpool in the early 60s long before the days of Facebook, Twitter and the internet, when life seemed simpler. In a series of rough sketches he depicted a time before computers banished us to cyberspace and traffic clogged up our streets... and so the seed of an idea was sown for a new, yet strangely familiar, adventure playground... Neil Buchanan’s HOPE STREET.

Neil told One Magazine, “Whilst I embrace the positive elements of modern technology I hope we never lose site of the magic of the simplicity of childhood. When I went out to play I walked down my very own HOPE STREET everyday with the gift that only children truly possess in abundant measure... imagination. HOPE STREET was a space where you could be whoever you wanted to be, and go wherever you wanted to go, and a place where you could rule the world or win the World Cup and all before tea time!”

Neil says he is a “sucker for nostalgia” and the 12 images capture an evocative snapshot of childhood as his paintings skip us across his great outdoor adventure playground, from hanging out on the swings and shared bike rides; through fishing with homemade rods, to the arrival of the ice cream man in the street.

The 12-strong series of limited edition prints, which are all personally signed by Neil Buchanan, have seen ‘The Art Attack Man’ take a highly anticipated step back into the limelight and he hopes to finally quell the ‘Neil Buchanan is dead’ rumours that still resurface on the internet even to this day.

Neil Buchanan said: “So am I dead... well last time I pinched myself I would say definitely not! I’ve always lived by the ‘let’s turn a negative into a positive’ approach to life, so HOPE STREET is this lively Liverpudlian’s response to the rumour mongers who tried to bury me! All I know is I had six million young art critics every week on Art Attack and it was their opinions I cared about most. The greatest honour will be if people like my HOPE STREET pictures enough to hang them on their walls. That will be the biggest approval rating for me.”

Often described as “a legend” by his loyal and enduring fans, Neil has influenced two generations of young people who grew up with Art Attack. The Ambassador for The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, and Face Britain patron, has also created his very own charity piece within the HOPE STREET collection. Having been a patient at the Alder Hey children’s hospital himself, the artist decided to paint A Little Hope, to raise funds for the Alder Hey Imagine Appeal. The image is exclusively available on www.neilbuchanan.co.uk  and Neil hopes sales will benefit one of the biggest and busiest children’s hospitals in Europe providing care for over 200,000 children.

Neil’s ‘second coming’ with HOPE STREET has followed another resurrection in his life as the successful seventies rocker decided to reform the heavy rock band Marseille. Thirty years after their first recording deal and tour of the USA with Nazareth and Blackfoot, Neil brought the band back to life in 2010, recorded an album Unfinished Business and embarked on the Unfinished Business tour, which was still rocking throughout 2011.

A typical day for Neil usually involves him being creative – either with a paint brush or his guitar. “I wake up and I just want to be creative, whether it is with a brush, or something that comes from my guitar. At home, I’m very lucky to have a recording studio and art studio in the back garden, so I can be creative whenever I feel like it.”

It is also great to hear that we can expect to see and hear a lot more of Neil in the coming year too! He said, “I am in the initial stages of painting another collection – all I can say is it will be very topical for 2012, but perhaps with my usual slightly anarchic approach to art and a bit of Scouser humour in there too! I’d also like to do some more material for the band and we’ll be doing some more festivals and gigs. The question really is when I wake up whether I pick up a piece of paper or my guitar!”

HOPE STREET is currently in Jamie Leigh Fine Art gallery and will be there until late spring, or whilst stocks last. With 12 limited edition prints and an edition size of 295 each worldwide, the prints are all personally signed by Neil Buchanan and beautifully framed by Jamie Leigh Fine Art. The brand new Jamie Leigh gallery has moved across the high street to 112 New Road, Rubery, West Midlands B45 9JR.

For more information on the exhibition then visit http://www.jamieleighfineart.co.uk/Exhibitions.html or call 0121 422 2503.