Framed oil painting on board by Harold Wood 1918-2014 (Napoleon), signed.

43cm x 54cm

Born in 1918, in Lancashire, England, has lived in Ireland since 1980. 1935 trained as a Decorative Artist with ‘Leyland Paint Co.’ Studied Drawing and Painting at the Harris School of Art, Preston.

1939 – 1946, War Service in North Africa, Abyssinia and Europe. After the War worked in London as an illustrator and model maker. During this time Harold was painting in oils and watercolour, figures, landscapes etc.

He began painting full time in 1953, one-man shows in London. Various mural comissions followed. In 1947 he was comissioned to illustrate the life of Abdul Aziz al Saud, the first King of Saudi Arabia, a toal of 58 paintings in watercolour, completed in 1977.

Since then he worked on this theme, and for the Sultan of Oman on paintings of his Arabian horses. With a total of 285 paintings to date for the two patrons, Harold became known as ‘Painter of the Arab World’.

In 1980 Harold came to live in Kinsale, Ireland and later to Ballinhassig. In 1993 he discovered Connemara and, in between the Arabian commisions, fell in love with the mountains and landscape, in contrast to the endless heat and dust of the desert which occupied a great deal of his working life for over 26 years.