Paul Cleden

Otway & Orford are proud to collaborate with printmaker Paul Cleden on our stylish and unique rugby silk pocket square, ‘World Class Scrummage’.

Paul studied illustration at Kingston University and Maidstone College of Art before becoming a freelance illustrator. Following a family move to Dorset, he taught printmaking and photography and is now a full-time printmaker as well as illustrator and writer. Paul’s accomplished linocut prints with their bold overlapping colours, lovely flowing lines and pared down shapes take several months to design, cut, proof and print with each final print hand-pulled by Paul using his 130-year-old printing press. His work can be seen in galleries across the UK and he has worked with a number of high profile clients including the RSPB and the National Trust.

Artists such as Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power and Lill Tschudi of the Grosvenor School as well as Michael Rothenstein and Edward Bawden have influenced Paul in the development of his own print making.

Paul’s original linocut using oil-based inks was inspired by his love of figurative movement in rugby, including the dynamism of the scrum. The work pits forwards against forwards in a titanic scrum clash of White vs Red, a coming together repeated all the way from international level through to grass roots rugby union. At the highest level, the White of England has taken on the Red of Wales since 1881, with every match hotly contested and the outcome never a foregone conclusion.

To see more of Paul's work, please visit www.paulcleden.co.uk