Paul Corfield returns with heartwarming Home From Home collection

As you may have guessed from his work, home means everything to Paul, He has lived in Dorset all his life, and he has never lived more than ten miles from his favourite painting location of Middle Beach at Studland near Swanage. “I've probably painted it a hundred times – maybe more, If I look back over the last 18 years I’ve worked with Castle Fine Art!” he says.

One of the reasons that it’s important for Paul to have a home he really enjoys is that last year, he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum which makes people see, hear and feel the world differently to other people. It has helped him understand the way he lives and works.

“I like to lead a solitary life away from other people, somewhere like you see in my paintings with the little solitary house,” Paul explains. “I’ve spent all my adult life manipulating my life so that I could live each day in a certain way. I never really knew why, but just that that's what I had to do to be able to function. Then late in 2022 I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, autistic and that's what controls my every waking minute.

“I bought my current home ten years ago because it fulfils everything I need be comfortable in myself and I rarely ever leave its boundaries. That’s just how it is and I never really notice. I'm often in my garden studio often for two thirds of the day! Home is my sanctuary. It's the only place I'm not trying to fit in and I'm not having to mask my behaviour to appear like other people. With my autism I'm extremely driven or controlled by routine."

Paul’s art and Asperger’s have proven to be an incredible combination which has made him a prolific and successful artist. “I was good at art at school and my art teacher said I could have a career in art. So when I left school I applied to art college to study technical illustration. Based upon my portfolio I was accepted straight away, but the thought of being around all those new people meant that I eventually turned the place down. That was probably the first time that my autism had a real life- changing effect and it has done ever since.

“But my adult life has been very different to my childhood. Art was always a calling but I could never see a way to get past the barriers until I was in my mid-twenties and saw art as a way out of the regular 9-5 job that I hated. That’s when I really started to apply myself, eventually turning professional at 32”.

Featured art: 'Highland Heather', a hand-varnished giclée on canvas by Paul Corfield, £595.

“As soon as I get up, I can't wait to get into the studio,” says Paul. “That burning desire is there every single day and it lasts all day long. I especially love being in the studio during summertime, when the temperature will often heat up to over 30°C by early afternoon and holds that same level of heat well past midnight. I love painting when it's really warm in the studio and when there's multiple fans blowing on me.

“Part of my autism is something called hyperphantasia, which means I have an extremely vivid imagination that never switches off. I have imagery, sounds and sensations running through my mind all day long, so it's very hard to focus on one thing. I'll often paint with the TV on, music might be on via my hi-fi, my tablet will be playing something on YouTube, my phone might be displaying something else - all of those things will be on at the same time and amongst all that I'm sat painting.

“Nearly all of my paintings are invented scenes from my imagination, and 99% of the time I never touch a painting once it's finished. I usually work on one painting at a time, I start at the top of the canvas and work to the bottom. Once I reach the bottom it is finished and requires no further work.”

Paul realises that his collectors connect very strongly to his paintings. “I hope they hang it somewhere nice, where the light changes throughout the day, and then they'll see that the artwork is a living, breathing thing. It takes on a life of its own and when the light is just right, it comes alive. At those moments they'll be transported off to another world.”