Art Brokerage: (born 18 June 1942) Beatles great Paul McCartney's artwork is truly fascinating with interesting facts. When he was eleven he used a school prize to buy his first modern art book, including works by Dali and Picasso. Then at fourteen he won an art prize for a drawing of St Aidan's Church on the Speke housing estate where he lived. The church reappears in Paul's 1990 painting 'Home Territory' along with his childhood homes in Western Avenue and Forthlin Road. "I felt that only people who'd gone to art college were allowed to paint," revealed Sir Paul later. In the early years of The Beatles, John Lennon and former member Stuart Sutcliffe attended Art college. Paul consequently felt inhibited by his lack of formal art training - a block he only conquered later in life. The irony is, he didn't have any formal music training either, but this failed to prevent him from becoming one of the most influential and pioneering songwriters of all time! During the sixties he became friendly with art critic, John Dunbar and gallery owner Robert Fraser. Through their circle of influential friends and young artists, Paul became familiar with contemporary art, meeting people like Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton who were to later design covers for The Beatles' albums. Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road were both based on ideas that Paul developed with them. Paul would spend lots of time at the Fraser and Indica galleries, helping with the installation of exhibits and feeding his enthusiasm for the medium. McCartney began collecting and bought a number of paintings by the surrealist painter Magritte, whose influence on Paul's own painting is considerable. Since 1983 he has set up studios in the south of England and in the USA, where he has been intensively exploring the medium of painting.