Acclaimed Sheffield artist's first UK solo museum show at the Graves Gallery

“I was studying at Chesterfield College at the time,” says Mosley. “I had left school with only one GCSE in Art and Design and I was doing re-sits and studying art. Because of that academic ‘failure’ I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time doing what I loved in a creative environment. We were brought to the Graves Gallery and I saw the kind of art I hadn’t ever seen before. It was a real turning point for me. I remember thinking ‘can this be art?’ I knew from the age of about 17 that I wanted to be a painter.”

Mosley went on to study at the University of Huddersfield and then later at the Royal College of Art in London. Another connection with the Graves Gallery came along shortly after he graduated from Huddersfield. “I owe a lot to the Graves,” he says. “The team offered me a place in a group show in 2004 and working with them on that instilled the belief in me that it was all worth it and maybe a career as a painter was possible. Being back here for this exhibition feels like a lovely full circle moment.”

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He has been a full-time painter for the past 19 years. His paintings explore narrative and character. They are intriguing images and draw the viewer in inviting you to reflect on what has happened in the moments before, or what is happening just outside the frame. They have a timeless quality about them and occupy a liminal space between fiction and fact. “What I am aiming for is for my paintings to exist in a kind of hinterland between past and present and future,” says Mosley. “I hope that doesn’t come across as being vague. It is for people to read in their own interpretation. My work is really about storytelling and I hope that people engaging with my work find something they can relate to, something that chimes with their own lives.”

There are paintings of people in everyday domestic situations, in bars and cafes, but also in the landscape, rowing boats on the river or walking through the hills. The images elicit a strong feeling of connection and at the same time are a close observation of the human condition. Some of the paintings recall the work of 20th century American realist Edward Hopper, others that move more towards abstraction are a little like the work of German Expressionist artists such as Otto Dix. “I do take inspiration from my art heroes,” says Mosley. “But people looking at my work don’t need an art education or to know about art history. What I like best is if people come to my work and find their own stories in them.”

He mentions that he was in the gallery recently and while he was there he got chatting with a lady who was looking at his painting Riverbank Empire 2026 which features a man in a rowing boat (a recurring motif in Mosley’s work) alongside a riverbank with a magnificent weeping willow tree. “The lady was looking at the painting and she said it reminded her of her dad but she couldn’t work out why,” says Mosley. “I told her that the painting was inspired by a stop that me and my wife and children made Ashford in the Water in Derbyshire on our way back from a camping holiday and we saw this amazing weeping willow. And the lady said ‘that’s where my dad grew up’. It is such a joy for me when people tell me those stories. That painting had touched her.”

Mosley hopes that the exhibition will give people the chance to slow down a little and take a break from our fast-paced modern life. My paintings are very low-fi and handmade,” he says. “There is a lot going on in the world, I hope looking at my work people can take time to reflect on who we are as people.”

When the Day is Done: New Paintings by Ryan Mosley is at the Graves Gallery, Sheffield until July 4. Free entry. sheffieldmuseums.org.uk