Sean Jefferson Art
An important element of our releases is the album artwork. An unashamed nod to the glory days of the vinyl LP gatefold sleeve, Sean provides original oil paintings referencing the lyrical and musical content of each release.
Arguably quite unlike anything any contemporary British artist is currently exhibiting, Sean's work is immediately striking and wholly unforgettable,. They’re an extraordinary combination of literary and artistic influences and experiences that have evolved over his past thirty-five years as a professional artist. Born in North Kent, Sean studied Microbiology at Imperial College, London, where he developed both his observational skills and his draughtsmanship making careful records of plants and microbiological specimens.
Whilst it was the tea-time TV publicity surrounding the death of German surrealist Max Ernst in 1976 that inspired him to become an artist, it is the earlier tradition of nineteenth-century British visionary art that is evoked in his paintings: William Blake, Samuel Palmer, Richard Dadd, G.F. Watts, the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood, Symbolism and Art Nouveau all have their place. But this is combined with a fascination with magic, folklore and spiritualism, and an early love of the artwork for LP album sleeves: from Peter Blake’s cover for The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ to Roger Dean’s psychedelic artwork for the likes of Yes.
After periods living and working in Amsterdam and Cornwall – where he exhibited alongside the Brotherhood of Ruralists, Sean has since lived in Kent where Samuel Palmer painted his early visionary paintings. He has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and Russia. His paintings evoke what he calls ‘an obsessive need to explore, and attempt to comprehend, the Universe and everything in it.’
They are ‘infused with a mix of Folk Revivalism, the Occult and Art Nouveau mixed with a fading Psychedelia, long hair and outrageously large Bellbottoms!
