H J Oliver & Sons

Fish & Angling Artist

I was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1948. I am related to artists Charles Bennett, a painter of still life and flowers and Harold Bennet R.A., the pottery designer and landscape painter. From an early age my enthusiasm for painting was encouraged by my parents, and on leaving school, I attended Newcastle-under-Lyme College of Art and thereafter entered the teaching profession.

My passion for fish began at an early age on summer outings and family picnics when a simple garden cane and a net landed sticklebacks to be taken home in a jam jar for closer inspection. Later, a present of some second-hand fishing tackle opened a whole new world of the inhabitants of a watery domain, whose power and grace I liken to that of a bird in flight.

My love of fishing and art have been combined over the years to the extent that I now specialises in painting fish and angling subjects. I have exhibited at the Dickens Gallery in London, bust most of my work, much of it on a commission basis, is exhibited in angling shows throughout the country. In addition I have illustrated angling magazines, produced a series of watercolour and oil paintings of Koi Carp for a Japanese magazine and have also painted a set of game fish pictures for the pottery industry.