Whilst living in Cornwall Adrian found himself making art that was soon in demand. “There was a diner across from the beach but it had nothing on the walls, so I painted some pictures and suddenly people wanted to buy them. At first I said ‘they’re not for sale’, and then I thought… yeah, why not?”
Back in Notts, he made the move to turn his garage into an art studio, until it eventually became untenable. “We had mannequins all over the house – it was doing my Mrs’ head in. I’d hear her screaming in the night ‘cos she thought she’d seen a ghost or something. But it looked like a party from the outside.” To remedy this, he started selling at the Pete Spowage Art Gallery near Lace Market, before eventually moving to Sneinton Market in November 2023.
Adrian’s signature pieces – the aforementioned painted mannequins (and mannequin parts) are often turned into lamps. “I’ve got a shipping container full of mannequins and I’m always walking around with bits of body parts,” he laughs, before reeling off some amusing anecdotes about getting the figures to the studio on the bus or tram. “I used to get the same tram every Saturday morning, and would be coming on with mannequins under my arm, or sets of legs.”
When it comes to finding inspiration, it’s easy to see a musical influence in Adrian’s work. “I go and see gigs all the time. I’m still going to Rock City now – I started going there when I was fourteen, and I’m 57 now,” he explains. Along with paintings of jazz musicians, a ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ footstool and a ‘Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll’ mannequin (painted with white, gold and black piano keys), there’s a punk attitude visible throughout the pieces. “It’s all about upcycling as well,” he explains. “I’m a bit of a skip jumper – all this lot would have been thrown away, these mannequins, chairs.”