Ed Kluz: Romancing the stones becomes a work of art

ED Kluz's childhood was "like something from an Arthur Ransome novel".

The artist was born in Ipswich, but his family moved to Yorkshire when he was four years-old.

"My mum and dad bought this shell of a farmhouse and we lived in a caravan for two years while they restored it," says Kluz.

"It was an amazing childhood really. We had this great hillside and the moors to play on and we were endlessly making these fantastic dangerous structures and dens. It was only as I grew up and got further away from my childhood that I realised how wonderful it was."

It was such a childhood that inspired in Kluz a lifelong love of ruins. Seeing his parents restore the wreck of a farmhouse gave Kluz a passion for old buildings – but not the ones you'd find on a National Trust trail.

"Growing up we were surrounded by castles and abbeys, so it's obvious

where my love of these old buildings comes from," says Kluz.

"There is a kind of poetry to ruins, a sense of romance to buildings that have been left to the elements. I'm not nearly as keen on buildings that have been looked after by English Heritage or whoever, with perfectly mown lawns and that have been beautifully restored. I think buildings like that have been killed with kindness."

The kinds of ruins where "nature has crept in and become part of the fabric of the building" feature in the latest solo exhibition of the painter, who is rapidly gaining a name for himself in the art world.

After studying at Winchester School of Art, graduating in 2002, Kluz found himself in the position of having bills to pay.

A job in Manchester, in events management, took him continually further away from the career he wished to pursue – art.

He took the decision to throw in all his chips, give up working in Manchester, move back in with his parents at their restored farmhouse in Richmond, and start working as an artist full-time.

"It's not been easy. I found myself fairly regularly looking down the barrel of a whole month with only 50 in my bank account, but I had to dedicate myself totally to working as an artist if I was going to get anywhere," says Kluz.

In 2004, a small solo exhibition at a gallery near his home town led to a meeting with Daniel Hornsey, of Ripon's gallery Hornseys'.

The two struck up a professional relationship and the gallery owner took Kluz on as one of his artists.

It was the beginning of a remarkable run of success for the young artist.

"Dan helped me focus on the business aspect of being a working artist and earning a living," says Kluz.

"He helped get my work out and also to get me working more professionally, producing work and understanding it as a job."

Since beginning his association with Hornseys', Kluz has had a commission from the Victoria and Albert Museum to produce a series of paper drawings, has been asked to illustrate a poetry collection by Random House, been selected for a residency at Newby Hall and next year will see a solo exhibition being held at a Scottish gallery.

The next chance Yorkshire audiences will have to see his work is at Hornseys' Gallery when Romantic Ruins Today opens next Friday.

The exhibition is a collection of work created over the past six months, all of which are paintings featuring ruined buildings that Kluz has spent a lifetime sketching.

"The buildings in the paintings come from sketches I've made all over the country. Whenever I see a building that is in ruins I sketch it and they have been the basis for the paintings in this latest exhibition," says Kluz.

"I think there is a narrative quality to buildings that have been left alone to nature, there is something about their incompleteness that I find really inspiring.

"When you look at a ruin you bring your own stories and your own life into it, almost filling in the gaps yourself of what was there.

"Hopefully that's something I capture in my paintings."

Romantic Ruins Today, Hornseys' Gallery, Ripon, August 13 to September 11.