Craig Wylie's work revolves principally around the search to extend the genres of still-life and figure painting.
He has an extraordinary ability to seize the appearance of his subjects with tremendous fluency and ease, but this is only the start. Suspicious of this innate virtuosity, he prefers the harder won image. Working from life, with forays into the use of a laptop for his large portrait heads, Wylie has developed a multi-faceted but singular approach to these genres.
With deep respect for the traditions of the past, being greatly motivated by Old Masters such as Chardin and Velasquez amongst many, he also has a deep seated desire to try and contribute to this tradition, not just make moribund, mannered pastiches of it. As a consequence, he also has a keen interest in contemporary art of all varieties which helps to set his work apart.
Craig Wylie is exhibited and collected internationally with recent exhibitions in the US, Germany, Hong Kong, France and Belgium. He has won numerous awards including Ist Prize in the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London as well as the London Region Prize at the Hunting Prize held at the Royal College of Art, London. He has work in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery and that of the Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg, Germany.