Famous for his tower paintings, artist Matthew Ellwood is asking the public for help with his latest work. He talks to Sarah Millington

AS Matthew Ellwood himself admits, inspiration comes in many forms, and the impetus to start painting towers couldn’t have had unlikelier origins. A struggling artist, Matthew had tried in vain to get his work noticed, painting local scenes in the hope that they would strike a chord with prospective buyers. They didn’t – and he decided to vent his frustration, substituting his usual idyllic streetscapes for a dystopian vision based on the biblical Tower of Babel.

It was only his brother’s intervention that curbed his venom. “He said, ‘Don’t do it – put in a blue sky. The irony will be on them’,” says Matthew, 33. He took the advice, keeping the tower concept, but moderating it to paint the town in a positive light. The painting took off and the rest is history.

Matthew has now depicted several towns and cities in the region and beyond, the works all featuring local landmarks in a haphazard mass of colour and detail. People love them, and Matthew’s towers have become a mainstay. “They’re my bread and butter – they’re what allows me to do my other work,” he says. “I really enjoy doing them and there’s a big demand.”

The towers are “mixed medium” – mainly watercolours highlighted with fine liner ink and thick gouache. Impressively detailed, they are pictorial summaries, including major buildings, bridges and coastlines.

Each painting takes months to complete, starting with meticulous research. Matthew visits the location, consulting a map and stopping off at the Tourist Information centre before embarking on a tour and taking lots of pictures. He always speaks to the locals to get a feel for the place. “I go to the local pubs and I normally get bombarded,” he laughs.

As well as working out the topography of a town or city, Matthew is keen to discover what its residents feel are its main features. He often finds they don’t recognise what he has painted.

“There have been so many times I’ve been somewhere and done a painting and people are like, ‘Where’s that?’,” he says. “They’ve just never seen it because they’ve never looked up or something. When I did Durham City, I painted ebgb Music. It was near the viaduct and near a student area and everybody used to go there for their guitars and things. As soon as I put that on, I had a lot of interest.”

Keen to avoid mass production, Matthew only does print runs of 850 – and once all the pictures are sold, he doesn’t produce any more. Such have been the popularity of the Durham and Newcastle Towers that he has had to paint second versions – and found that both cities had changed significantly in the interim.

“There are probably only 50 per cent of the buildings from the first Newcastle that are in the second,” says Matthew. “Things change so quickly, even from doing the research to painting. I’ve got a friend who walks across Newcastle when he finishes work and I’ll get him to report back on things that have changed.”

Snapshots of the moment, Matthew’s towers are also records for posterity. His next will be Darlington – a project he has embarked on alongside homewares shop Maison Royale – and, in a Facebook competition, locals are being asked for suggestions, with the winner receiving a print. Matthew feels the town is a fitting subject.

“Darlington has had a few problems, architecturally, over the last few years,” he says. “Things like the market look under threat. But it’s got such nice Victorian architecture, with the railway station and things like that. It’s just a shame that, like so many of the North-East cities, it’s just sort of slumped.”

Brought up in Weardale, Matthew, who now lives in Ebchester, County Durham, credits his father – an architectural engineer and draughtsman – for his artistic talent. He studied furniture and product design at university but, realising a career in the field would leave him little autonomy, returned to his first love of painting.

For Matthew, success means striking a balance between following his creative instincts and commercialism. It’s not always easy and he sometimes feels he has to indulge himself, creating art that doesn’t sell.

His painting The Tower of Topple, for example, depicts a corrupt world where greed and consumerism rule – the famous Enjoy Coca Cola slogan has been replaced with the words, “Enjoy Capitalism”. Another painting, The Tower of Fable, shows a fairytale scene dominated by villains. “I’ve got to be able to do something like that once in a while – otherwise I go stir crazy,” Matthew explains.

Soon to be married, he also aims to reach the next level professionally by opening a gallery. He has earmarked Teesdale as a location and his parents as staff. “It would take some of the load off me,” says Matthew. “We’re looking at somewhere near Egglestone Abbey.”

In the meantime, he will continue painting the towers for which he has become known and of which people seem never to tire. For an artist trying to make a living, it’s not a bad compromise. “The good thing with a tower is you might as well go the full hog with your imagination,” says Matthew. “You’ve already broken the rules – you might as well keep on breaking them.”

n If you have a suggestion about what iconic architectural, artistic and natural features Matthew should include in his Darlington tower painting, go to Maison Royale's Facebook page. The best suggestion will win a signed copy of the final painting.

  •  www.matthewellwood.com; www.maison-royale.co.uk