Adrian CHappell

I’m an artist and writer. I was fine art trained in the UK and Italy, then spent most of my professional career working the arts and education sectors in London.  This spanned primary, secondary and higher education. I also worked in local government and for the Arts Council (London).

I relocated from London to East Sussex in 2022 to set up my studio practice. Leading up to this I published my first novel An Honourable Betrayal, a political thriller set in Yemen. I exhibited a series of drawings and paintings based on themes from the book. This combined approach to writing and art-making subsequently became the hall-mark for my creative work.

My primary interests now draw on themes from Britain’s post-war social and cultural history. In 2025 I published Postcards & Postscripts which combined my writing and painting in a semi-autobiographical book about growing up in the 1950s and 60s.

My current project 1966: Cool Conjunctures is another writing and art-making publication. This time the project juxtaposes themes from one single year – 1966 – a time when creative collisions epitomised the “swinging sixties”. The project concluded with a solo exhibition and book launch at the Patterson Gallery, Lansdowne Hotel, Eastbourne in November 2026.