AN ARTIST is determined to make his paintings pay their way.

Paul Matthews has taken on the financial pressure of singlehandedly paying the mortgage on his Puddletown stone cottage after his partner returned to Denmark to care for her elderly father.

The former county council worker relies on commissions for people and animal portraits and is determined to exhibit as much as possible this year so he can gain commissions, sell his artwork and pay the mortgage.

Paul has won awards for his animal artwork and his life portraits have been shortlisted for national awards.

His long-term Danish partner Annie had to go back home five months ago to care for her 86-year-old father and is now paying for accommodation in Denmark, leaving Paul with the sole responsibility of paying the UK mortgage.

He said: “This means that my painting career has now really got to pay its way.

“With that in mind I shall be exhibiting more during 2017 and I am also supplementing sales with teaching art, which I’m really enjoying.

"Annie keeps telling me to ‘get a proper job’ or ‘go back to my career as a graphic designer’ but this is where my heart is and I believe in my abilities."

As part of his proactive year Paul is showing his work in his home studio for the Open for Art festival.

He is supplementing his income with a part-time job in the Londis store next to his home.

Paul said: "I love Puddletown. I have thought about going to Denmark, but I love living in Dorset.

"One of the good things about working in the shop is doing deliveries and driving round the Cerne Valley.

"I don't think there are more spectacular views anywhere else in the world."

Paul hopes that people will consider his people or pet portraits as gifts for family members or friends for special occasions.

"Both of them seem to be really popular and I do the paintings from photos or from people sitting for me.

"I tend to think of myself as having a foot in each camp and that both subjects are pretty similar because people are really hairless animals.

"The great thing is that you can use your artistic licence if people ask you to or you can do something that's warts and all if people want you to, or you can be a bit more forgiving."

Paul has painted and drawn since he was small and in August 2011 he chose a career as a full time artist, painting wildlife and portraiture from his home in rural Dorset.

He paints contemporary wildlife paintings, where the subject takes centre stage and the mood is set by light and shade. References are collected from life by sketching and photographing in the field both at home and abroad.

Recently Paul travelled to the Okavango Delta in North Botswana and has previously visited Kenya and Tanzania. Paul’s work attracted wide acclaim in the summer of 2012, when he was a finalist in the David Shepherd Foundation’s competition for Wildlife Artist of the Year.

His picture, The Passenger, selected ahead of thousands of entries from all over the world received the public’s choice award at The Mall Galleries in London. Almost simultaneously Paul was in the final of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year competition, receiving runner up in the Frozen Planet section with his polar bear portrait.

This was the fourth year Paul was shortlisted for the final of the BBC competition since its inception in 2008.

There's plenty more for Paul to look forward to this year with future exhibitions.

He said: “I have already done an art demonstration at Wareham Art Group and am having my first workshop in The Guggleston Gallery, Stalbridge, on July 20. I am planning more workshops and commissions.”

He adds: “I have had to become more hard nosed; sales are evermore critical now and so I shall be collecting four of my paintings from a gallery in Staffordshire to place in my forthcoming exhibitions.”

*Paul is showing his work in his Puddletown studio at 25 High Street, Puddletown, near Dorchester for the remainder of ArtWey Arts Weeks 2017, today between 3pm and 6pm, and tomorrow between 10am and 5pm.

Then on June 24 and 25, his work features in the Creative Coverage Mixed Show at Upwey Village Hall, Church Street, Upwey near Weymouth.

For more information contact Paul on 01305 848780 or email him at lpaulmatthews@gmail.com