About
Niel Bushnell grew up in the industrial decline of 1970s Hartlepool, where the smoke-streaked skyline and working-class grit formed the backdrop to his childhood. He found escape—and a sense of possibility—in the pages of comics and dog-eared paperbacks, where worlds were bigger, stranger, and ridiculous. A passion for drawing and storytelling took root, and it never let go.
Determined to be a comic artist, Niel instead stumbled into animation, working on projects for television, film, and games before turning his attention more fully to storytelling—first through novels and illustration, and now through richly atmospheric paintings that blend mood, memory, and imagination.
Niel’s style is shaped by his background in visual storytelling, drawing on cinematic composition, expressive light, and narrative threads that hide just beneath the surface. With a wry sense of humour and an unflinching eye on mortality, Niel’s work captures moments suspended between laughter and loss—stories half-told, waiting for the viewer to complete them.
Always in the middle of something new, Niel lives in the North East of England with his family, and works from a cramped space that’s never quite tidy.
