A TALENTED Winsford artist has seen his paintings span the globe after helping ex-pat work colleagues take a slice of Britain home with them.

Oil painter, Haydn Herbert, has become something of a sensation at Morrisons Manufacturing in Wharton Bridge.

The Woodcott Avenue artist was more than happy to help when former colleagues and friends wished to take a piece of Blightly back to the continent.

“Where I work was a popular job for East Europeans,” explained Haydn. “They all wanted a painting of places they'd visited when they were going home.

“I’ve got work all around the world now. Colleagues from Slovakia, Poland, Belgium, Lithuania; they’ve ended up in all sorts of places. It’s nice to give them something to remember the country by.”

Haydn’s intricate landscapes and portraits became so popular that Morrisons soon featured him in their in-house magazine.

The naturally gifted painter inherited his skills from his watercolour artist father, James.

“My mother said to me that I had my father’s gift,” said Haydn. “But I never went to art school or anything. I taught myself more or less.”

At just nine-years-old he was runner-up in a national contest with a landscape of Bootle in his native Liverpool.

Moving to Winsford aged 14, Haydn has spent his working life at the Wharton factory and completed many thousands of paintings since.

He’s staged several exhibitions in Cornwall, where he was spotted in Newquay by a local art society member who invited him to stage lectures on his technique.

And those among Haydn’s Cornwall connection were as surprised as locals to find how little he was selling his works for – he never asks for much more than £80.

“My mum goes mad and says I’m giving them away. But it’s a hobby, I’m not doing it to make money,” said Haydn.

  • To contact Haydn for a commission, call 01606 599097.