Reuben Colley (born 1976) is a British representational painter primarily recognised for his "gritty" city-scapes[1] and parkland scenes depicting his home town of Birmingham, England.[2][3] His work is included in the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery[4] and private collections both nationally and internationally.
Colley studied at Bournville Art College, Birmingham, and in 1995, he enrolled at The University of Wolverhampton, where he gained a BA Honours in Fine Art, specialising in painting.[5]
After founding a commercial gallery (Reuben Colley Fine Arts) in the Moseley district of Birmingham in 2010, the gallery relocated to Birmingham's city centre on Colmore Row in 2015.[8]
Colley has said: "I don't paint a particular subject, I try to depict an atmosphere".[9] He's explained his process, saying:
I am constantly exploring new areas of my own painting to see what creates an atmosphere or a mood for the viewer, to take them past the boundaries of being purely representational, and they become a record of my own experiences and impressions of places. [...] Painting, to me, should be a very natural process, without the restraints of gimmick and style, it is an infinite language of expression, only I find it much more comforting than using words.[10]