My father Paul Leith is an artist, he worked as a commerical illustrator for much of his career.
He must be one of the last in a generation of illustrators to do all his work by hand without the use of any computer. He tells a story about various motorbike couriers coming to his East Dulwich studio to collect the finished artworks, whisking them off to various London offices. On tight deadlines often the paint was still wet when they arrived, Paul would hair dryer the artwork, while his wife (Tina) stalled the couriers with cups of tea. Something unheard of for my generation of illustrators where we do almost all work digitally or scanned and sent via the internet.
When technology took over the creative industry Paul slowly went under the radar and with no online presence, his work was almost all forgotten.
After a Graphic Design and Visual Communication degree, I became more interested in Paul's illustration work. As a young girl I remember spotting his illustrations on books, newspapers, food labels and on billboards (see billboard snapshot below). To my delight many of his original artworks were kept inside two large plans chests. Keen to find out more I began to archive it all, with a strong feeling it was my duty to get these works seen again.
My latest goal with his archive is to reproduce a few of my favourite pieces as high quality art prints. I am excited to say they are finally available via his online shop. Please check his website out here!
