JULIAN BARROW

"I am often asked why I like to return to the Middle East so often," says Julian.

"It is because of a romantic notion that I am following in the tradition of English artists who came to this part of the world in the 18th and 19th centuries, and like them I have been lured back again and again to put down on canvas a way of life so different from my own."

Born in Cumberland and educated at Harrow, Julian spent a year as an apprentice picture restorer at the National Gallery, London, and then went to Florence to study drawing and painting where he refined the art of painting landscapes, houses and interiors. Previously, President of the Chelsea Art Society, he works from his studio in Tite Street, Chelsea, in a building once occupied by Whistler, Sargent and Augustus John.